Epic Games has announced a new competition that asks players to design new outfits for Fortnite.
Called ‘Concept Royale’, the competition is pitched as a way for budding artists to design their own Fortnite outfits. Two ‘lucky’ winners will have their designs turned into real Fortnite skins, appearing later this year at the Winter 2021 event [via Kotaku].
Though this sounds like a fun competition for younger Fortnite players to get involved with, the reward is rather paltry given the amount of money that Fortnite brings in, especially if the winning skins are to be sold for Epic’s benefit.
Epic promises that the winning designs will earn the winners a $2,500 cash prize alongside the chance for their skins to be included in the Fortnite game. The blockbuster hit was recently valued at over $17 billion, showing that the developer and publisher Epic Games isn’t exactly strapped for cash.
Epic Games hasn’t yet confirmed what it intends to do with the outfit designs – only that they’re intended to arrive as part of the WInter 2021 event. If Epic does decide to sell the skins for their own profit, it stands to make back far more money than the $5k it will pay to the designers in the first place.
Where have we heard this idea before?
It’s reminiscent of when Ubisoft asked fans of Beyond Good and Evil to help design assets for the upcoming sequel. In a collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s company ‘Hit Record’, artists could submit their artwork to be included in the game.
The catch was that they would only get paid if the assets were actually used. The rates were much lower than staff artists at the studio would be paid for the same work. It triggered a backlash against the studios use of ‘spec work’ which often exploits freelancers for their labour [via Polygon]
Epic’s competition is surely intended as some harmless fun for the younger members of the Fortnite audience. It has run similar competitions before. Remember Orange Justice kid? How could anyone forget that icon.
Fortnite is currently entering it’s seventh season of Chapter 2, which sees aliens descend upon the island. For whatever reason, Rick Sanchez and Superman are there too.
What do you think of the Concept Royale competition? Let us know across our social channels.
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Featured Image Credit: Epic Games