Fortnite’s ‘Icon Series’ features influencer skins starting with Ninja
“Gaming, music, film, and fashion collide” in upcoming celebrity collaborations
Epic has announced the Fortnite ‘Icon Series,’ a commercial venture which will see it release skins and emotes based on “top creators” for its blockbuster game.
“Gaming, music, film, and fashion collide in Fortnite in the Icon Series,” the company says.
“The Icon Series brings the artistic vision, personality, and attitude of top creators to Fortnite, building on previous collaborations with Marshmello and Major Lazer.”
The first collaboration is with Mixer streamer Ninja.
The Ninja Outfit, Ninja’s Edge Back Bling, Ninja Style Emote and Dual Katanas Pickaxe, which are previewed in the stream below, will be available in the game’s item shop from January 16 at 7pm ET / 4pm PT / Jan 17 at 12am UK.
Future series collaborations will include streamers Loserfruit and TheGrefg.
Fortnite generated more revenue than any other digital game in 2019, according to research from Nielsen’s SuperData.
Epic’s game generated $1.8 billion in 2019 to claim the top spot for the second year running, ahead of Dungeon Fighter Online ($1.6b), Honour of Kings ($1.6b), League of Legends ($1.5b), Candy Crush Saga ($1.5b) and Pokemon Go ($1.4b).
“The enduring popularity of Fortnite is partially attributable to crossover promotions with pop culture blockbusters like Avengers, Stranger Things and Star Wars,” SuperData said.
Epic Games has also released Fortnite update v11.40, which includes the following battle royale changes:
- Introducing Sidegrading: the Heavy Assault Rifle returns.
- In non-competitive playlists, you can now use Upgrade Machines to “Sidegrade” your Assault Rifle into a Heavy Assault Rifle.
- Reduced material costs for upgrading weapons at Upgrade Machines.
- Added the following items to Battle Lab:
- Flint-Knock Pistol (Common and Uncommon)
- Shockwave Grenade
- Impulse Grenade
- The iPad Pro (2018 release) now supports 120 FPS.
- Clickable thumbstick buttons (L3 and R3) are now usable on supported iOS controllers.
Bug fixes:
- Players’ missing Star Wars Achievements have returned to the Legacy timeline.
- Resolved an issue involving the “F” key not enabling proper movement after direction was remapped to it.
- Resolved an issue involving editing quickly causing players to remain in Edit mode.
- Falling into a Hideout no longer causes the Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle’s crosshairs to disappear.
- Resolved an issue involving the “Visit different bus stops in a single match” Remedy vs. Toxin Challenge not tracking progress for some bus stops.
- The Spectrum Contrail again changes colors while in motion.
- Continued to make improvements regarding FPS drops and hitching on mobile devices.
- Resolved an issue involving mobile players getting stuck in a loop on the Select Fire Mode screen.
- Resolved an issue involving console players being unable to progress through the gifting process if they did not have Two-Factor Authentication enabled.
An extended Fortnite Season 2 Chapter 1 will end in February 2020.
