To put it quite simply, this is one of the most influential games of recent times, yet despite this, it is also one that is not criticized enough for its many flaws.

In the sea of many rich features such as the near endless customization, a wide range of gameplay options, going further beyond than Battle Royale and Save the World gamemodes as of recent and even the elusive factor of many collaborations being widely available to be purchased, the game still creates such negative and counterintuitive design upon itself that cannot be overlooked.

Let's start first by mentioning the largest issue with this game:
Corporate greed and the lack of criticism for such. Fortnite is a game which is considered 'live service', and as such, it must continuously release new marketable content to ensure the game's longetivity continuously expands, with this in mind, it is normal to expect heavy monetization even in its most basic principles, such as, the varying options within the locker, going from the player's selected skin to even the pickaxe which they wield. Customization in video games is far too expensive, and there is not enough reason to justify the prices which are given by Epic, there is no world where spending 20 dollars on a skin and maybe some accessories alongside it is considered anything but dystopian. As of recent times as well, Epic games has even gone as far to increase the prices of many newly released cosmetics, following with a denial of such in a post from their official account.

Following recent statements made by Tim Sweeney, the current aim of Fortnite is to be made into a "metaverse", and as such, they aim to go much further beyond than the Battle Royale genre which they have mainly been supporting for years. By this, they meant that they would also extend their monetization to further areas of the game, even putting a price tag on things that are pure vanity and/or actual gameplay features for other games. LEGO Fortnite is monetized by them reselling parts and bundles that can be reconstructed into your world, Rocket Racing's cars are sold separately in the shop with a large price tag, towering over many cosmetics in the game, including bundles. The most egregious example of this terrifying monetization lies within Fortnite Festival, which each 'track' can be purchased permanently for the quite small price of 500 V-Bucks, translated to roughly $5 per track in USD. The game still offers some tracks for free with a rotation but having to spend such large price for such tracks is not something that can ever be excused.

Going even further beyond, as of recent there have been rumors of the extension of the Battle Pass systems to the newer gamemodes, already possible to be seen within Fortnite Festival. The Battle Pass system is one of the most replicated nowadays in recent times, and this game is the pioneer of such. As a measure to create such illusive veil over the predatory monetization mechanic, they at least seek to repay the user in full, and even higher, for finalizing your progress through the battle pass, which is not something commonly done in games. Though this is true, it must be further explained that the Battle Pass' pricing is not the only awful predatory mechanic. Integral to its design, it is built on the very idea of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), this idea extends further to many collaborations with other IPs, even being most horribly seen in Chapter 2 Season 4's which was a Battle Pass designed entirely after Marvel. There is no feature in the game that offers those original skins ever again once the season is over, and as such, Fortnite takes advantage of this to release "remixes" of the skins built on the original idea with a differentiated theming, larger examples of this being the "Midas" and "Peely" skins, both of which stand as distinguished within the community and many official marketing posts, even in the game's story.

If the monetization part is not enough of a reason to realize why this game has become a rather large issue in recent times, there is so, so much more that has yet to be said. Starting off with last year's employee lay-off which was done with the pure intent to further expand the monetary gain of developers within the game's "Creative" side, a project born out of the very idea of a Metaverse, it allows creators to make their own mini-games utilizing Epic's engine and assets. On paper, this is quite fine as an idea, but ironic to the gamemode's name, it is filled with further predatory and unlawful practices. Such as, the use of AI Generated content for many of the game's thumbnails, it follows as one of the largest trends seen on the platform as of recent times, the infringement of other Intellectual Property and marketing off as their own, the entire system is built so that 'experiences' as such are further enhanced and given the spotlight, as creators are indeed paid for their continous success within the platform. The company continues to build further upon the idea of a Metaverse, and seeks to push this creative process to become the "face of the game" in a near future.

Despite the fact much more is yet to be said there, I believe these points are still important enough in the sense that they showcase many reasons to not support this game and company.