‘Fortnite’ removes the Infinity Blade weapon after player backlash

By Gabe Gurwin December 14, 2018

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Epic Games’ “Infinity Blade” creation might want to think about a name change. After Epic Games removed the game Infinity Blade and its sequels from digital storefronts, the titular weapon was added to Fortnite as a new battle royale item, but player backlash has resulted in the blade being removed from that game as well.

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The Infinity Blade was added to Fortnite‘s battle royale mode in an update earlier this week and was made available in standard matches. Once one player equipped it, it wouldn’t spawn for the rest of the match, and that player was able to cause chaos with powerful swings, increased health and shields, and longer jumps.

Putting the weapon in standard battle royale matches wasn’t the best move for some players, however, who complained about the game’s balance being broken.

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The issue blew up because it occurred just as the Fortnite Winter Royale tournament was taking place, meaning that competitors didn’t have time to prepare before they were thrown into matches and began battling for a piece of the $1 million prize. One player won a heat of the tournament using the Infinity Blade and said they were met with angry messages because of it.

Now, Epic Games has reversed course, and seems to have recognized that the weapon wasn’t implemented correctly. In an announcement on Twitter, the official Fortnite account said that the Infinity Blade had been “vaulted,” meaning it’s no longer available, and a different approach could be used for similar “mythic” items in the future.

Heya folks,

We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game.

The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items.

Thanks for calling us out on this!

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 14, 2018

Some players have suggested making the weapon on available in limited-time modes, similar to what was done with the Thanos mode to promote Avengers: Infinity War. Either way, dropping something like this just before a tournament that had cash up for grabs was probably not the best idea, but you live and you learn.

Fortnite is now available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Mac, and PC, with cross-play support across all platforms. Aside from the Infinity Blade, the game recently added Creative Mode, which lets players design their own environments and modes, and it’s available for free.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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