Epic Games has changed the shop associated with Fortnite Festival, and fans are far from thrilled.
20 songs instead of 300 – Epic Games wants to pressure players into making purchases again with a new marketing strategy for the Fortnite Festival.
FOMOnite
Just after parents started suing Fortnite for creating FOMO (= fear of missing out), Epic Games apparently decided it was best to make the situation even worse.
The lawsuit claims that the rotation of shop skins is extremely unpredictable (and sometimes misleadingly advertised), which puts pressure on players to purchase something immediately because they don’t know when the offer will return.
It seems Epic thought this strategy shouldn't just apply to skins, but also to songs.
Limitation Of Song Shop Offers
In the Fortnite shop, instead of the previous hundreds of songs, there are now only 20 available, which will rotate regularly.
The problem? You never know when a song will be available again, especially when less than 10% of the festival songs are available daily.
As a result, players are forced to either wait indefinitely or purchase something immediately when it's in the shop.
A smaller selection might initially seem like a bad marketing strategy, but this time-limited pressure actually encourages hesitant players to make a purchase right away.
Variety is the spice of life (and our set lists!)We're taking a new, more curated approach to both our Main Stage Featured Rotation and Jam Tracks in the Shop pic.twitter.com/F3DoaDe3qX
— Fortnite Festival (@FNFestival) March 21, 2025
Negative Feedback
This change to the shop has especially caused an uproar among Festival fans. Since the introduction of the change, there has been constant protest on the Fortnite Festival subreddit:
Thanks, Epic Games! I really appreciate not having access to digital products that shouldn’t be restricted for any reason 😍😍😍 - u/Quick_soda
"We're improving the user experience by removing access to most of said experiences." - u/dave_dynasty
Why did fortnite feel the need to remove about 94.3% of every jam track in the item shop, and claim they’re releasing “new tracks”, despite the new songs barely being in rotation? - u/joemamastudios
Producers Aren't Allowed To Comment
In a Discord comment that’s been circulating through the Fortnite community, a producer of Fortnite Festival mentions that he isn't allowed to comment on the shop change.
So, it's quite possible that the developers of the mode aren’t happy with the decision either, but Epic is prohibiting them from uttering any criticism.
They really can't say anything. pic.twitter.com/uy3iYB1bvV
— PaulSD (@paulsd_95) March 23, 2025
How the Festival mode will fare and whether Fortnite will listen to the criticism remains to be seen. What do you think about this change?