Monero Isn’t Coming To Fortnite Just Yet

Currently one of the biggest games in the world, Fortnite has taken gamers everywhere by storm after this free to play game hit mainstream appeal for its battle royale mode as well as quirky game style. Previously, reports came out saying that the video game was accepting the cryptocurrency Monero for purchases of Fortnites merchandise but they have been shot down recently by the CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney. For those that don’t know, Epic Games is the development company behind the popular video game.

After the official Twitter account for the game tweeted that you can buy your own t-shirts and merchandise, the popular Monero developer Riccardo Spagni had this to say:

Too cool: the Fortnite merch store (https://t.co/KNL4IFCFHk) lets you pay in Monero, so now you can purchase that sweet Durrr Burger onesie without your friends / family / coworkers judging you. https://t.co/XYs1NjGvGp

— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) January 1, 2019

This was tweeted on 1st January 2019 and since then, nothing else was said but on 6th January Sweeney, made a response to set the record straight saying:

Actually, Fortnite’s brief foray into crypto was accidental. We worked with a partner to open a merchandise store, and somewhere along the way Monero payment was enabled.https://t.co/vzmSCMey3T

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 6, 2019

Sweeney followed on from this by suggesting that this doesn’t mean Epic Games aren’t going to look at something like this in the future as he said on Twitter “Many of us at Epic are big fans of the decentralized computing tech underlying cryptocurrency, however a lot more work is needed on volatility and fraud-proofing before bringing it to such a broad audience that includes younger gamers.” Sweeney even followed on from this saying “Googling this, there’s quite a rumor mill out there. No, Epic doesn’t have any cryptocurrency partners and aren’t in any crypto partnership discussions with anyone. We do read lots of papers and talk to smart people to learn more in anticipation of an eventual intercept.”

Accidental?

The question still looms as to whether this was an accident or not as back in September 2017 there were a few sharp-eyed gamers who noticed that they were playing with people on different consoles. In response to this, Epic Games claimed that this was just a bug with a spokesperson saying at the time “we had a configuration issue and it has now been corrected.”

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!