Fortnite crossover pushes Argentinian indie to the top of the best sellers on Epic

Currently beating out games such as Arc Raiders and EA Sports FC 27

Developer Emphemera Games and Publisher Whitethorn Games announced that their upcoming Magical Girl Co-op Action RPG ‘Kernel Hearts’ will release on the 17th September on Steam and Epic Games Store. As part of this announcement it was also announced that main character Fernet would be landing in Fortnite as an indefinite bonus for purchasing the game on the Epic Games Store in the program that Epic are calling ‘Gift with purchase’ as in you get a gift with your purchase. The entire premise of the promotion being that you purchase an eligible item (Game, DLC, Microtransaction) through the Epic store and your Fortnite account is awarded a relevant cosmetic for doing so from the game you have purchased. In the case of Kernel Hearts players can preorder the game now and get immediate access to the Fernet skin in Fortnite, with the FAQ on the store page stating that the promotion will run as long as Kernel Hearts is sold on the Epic Games Store, so even down the line when the game goes on steep sales, it’ll still be worthwhile picking the game up if you want the skin, those that would rather not purchase the game on Epic and would prefer to stick with Steam or even those that would rather not purchase the game at all aren’t out of luck either as the skin will be in Fortnite’s Item Shop on the 26th September.

This type of offer has become a pushing point for Epic, previously been done for games such as Cronos: The New Dawn, Warframe and Super Meat Boy 3D, among others. For the old heads reading this, it might sound familiar and that would be because it’s not the first time purchasing something on a storefront gives you cosmetics for another game, Epic seemingly taking a leaf our of Valve’s book as famously this has been done with Team Fortress 2 where purchasing games such Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse would grant relevant cosmetics to the players, in the case of Sam & Max, players who purchased on Steam within a limited time would get the infamous ‘Max’s Severed Head’ as a hat for their characters to wear.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone in the regard.

It’s hard to deny the popularity of these promotions as they promote games to the gigantic Fortnite player base, enticing them to check out the games included based on the the fact that people know it’s collaboration skin and gives developers an alternative source of revenue as the skin will be able to rotate in the Fortnite Shop, giving a cut of skin sales to the developers and also giving an option for people that would prefer to just buy the skin irrespective of the game. This presents Epic with more reasons to advertise the game on the promanent parts of their storefront as it’s a benefit not only for Fortnite (and by extension Epic) but for the developers taking part in the program as well, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved in the regard.

The fruits of labour being seen as the game is currently sitting at the number 1 spot of the Top Sellers on the Epic Games Store. Players on the official Fortnite subreddit have generally reacted positively to the skin with the post showing the skin off in game having over 1.4k upvotes, with the game being a modest £16, some players are suggesting to just purchasing the game if you want the skin as the value of purchasing V-Bucks for the skin pretty much evens out. It’s just a good value proposition by either looking at it as getting a free game with your Fortnite skin or getting a Fortnite skin with your game. Kernel Hearts doesn’t look to be the only game likely seeing a boost in sales from this kind of promotion with S-Game Studio’s upcoming Phantom Blade Zero having recently lost the top spot and dropping to 5th, alongside Remedy Entertainment’s sequel to the critically acclaimed SCP-themed shooter Control named Control Resonant also appearing pretty high up in the chart, although not as high as I would personally like to see it!

In a recent Ask Me Anything answer from an Epic Games employee, they state that the player communities have welcomed this initiative with open arms and in a follow up question asking if developers and publishers that have taken part in the ‘Gift with purchase’ promotion have been happy with the program, the response says that “they have all been happy”, stating that “the Fortnite mega highway provides significant visability for IP”, no doubt due to the huge reach that Fortnite gives to them, something that couldn’t easily (nor cheapely) replicated through normal marketing. Especially with Fortnite having a resurgence in players in the last 3 months potentially due to the inclusion of the new collectible sprites, with the game’s average player monthly player count again reaching above 1 million players and looking to continue increasing, a surely sigh of relief for Epic Games after dropping to 750,000 on average in June, the lowest average Fortnite has had in a month in a very long time.