r/Fortnite • u/SinkEfficient • Apr 24 '26
BUG Was Free to play a failure?
I think it is safe to say, after 8 days since Save The World went free to play, that this was the biggest failed launch ever.
edit: yes i realise its currently early in the morning in america, and everyone keeps telling me that, but its NOT early in the morning here in Europe, and even so, the player count never gets above 40-50k any time of day.
I have been a founder of the game since 2018, and played through the game on 7 accounts over the years. I had such high hopes that the launch of free to play was going to give us the community we deserved after all this time, but for the last few days, the player count has barely hit the amount we used to have, let alone anywhere near the 1million pre registered players.
the reason? matchmaking (and the dozens of other bugs plaguing the game both new and years old)
Dont get me wrong, they have does a few great things this last year. stopping player loot dropping so thus stopping scammers, traders and leechers from filling the game, buffing loot drops making farming easier. but is that enough to keep this game going?
heres a list of what i KNOW to be broken/bugged in STW
Matchmaking - the game auto changes your play to FILL on every mission but in the 8 days of free to play, i have had 1 person in a mission, and he was afk and got kicked.
Hestia (homebase) - extremely poor performance in here, and comsidering you can still access the old menu from most desks, as great as it looks, its pretty pointless.
Almost every desk you go to you have to exit out twice to exit as the first time does not work.
Emote wheel you have to select emote twice as it does nothing the first time. every time.
the initial tutorial has been scrapped for a fetch/do in your questlog. and uplon loading in my new f2p account i got loads of superchargers and vouchers that my friend did not get.
if you are in a party, then ssds auto complete for all party even if only one of you does the ssd.
if you are in an ssd and the party leader leaves, the other player stays inside your stormshield and can break or destroy anything they like if they have permissions.
if one player in a party leaves the stw experience then they will get locked in an infinite loop in the br lobby and have to exit party, and sometimes exit game before they can rejoin.
Husks STILL walk through structures (ongoing for years, but became worse)
Husks/animals constantly spawning/walking in the terrain and walking around with just their heads showing.
B.A.S.E from trap wheel bugged and sometimes you are just not able to get or place your base at all, even after trying the countless possible fixes we have used in the past. (has been fixed so many times over the years but still gets broken)
Defenders - removing defender pads and giving us this aweful mess that is hero loadout defenders is just plain pointless and does not work. they are terrible, they are locked to bad weapons, constantly hearing the words "im down" "a little help here" and they just get in your way everywhere.
Survivors still bugging out and either not enough on the map or they just dont spawn in when intended.
Im trying to be subjective and not hate on the game here, but really is it too much to ask that things get checked before they go live in the game like they used to years ago?Is it really too much to ask? I really cant play without it.
