There’s a new batch of Fortnite: Battle Royale skins that have leaked out of this morning’s v5.2 patch. There’s some excellent stuff in there: I still have no idea what the theme of Season 5 is in any real way, but Epic does a nice job with a lot of the skins on offer even if they’re a bit scattershot, as usual. We’ve got a sushi chef, some motorcycle ninjas, some Radical Heights-baiting neon and a long-awaited mascot: see the full list over here. One, in particular, should be of particular interest to anyone interested in this game’s world-dominating plans. It’s called “Galaxy,” and it looks to be a Samsung Galaxy Exclusive, possibly only the S9. Let’s take a look:
As a skin, it’s deeply cool. The model appears to be identical to the standard no-skin, but it’s all done up in an ethereal texture with a slick shimmer effect we can see in this in-game preview uncovered by Fortrisen:
The skin won’t be available in the item shop according to various dataminers, lending credence to the idea that it would be only available through some sort of external claim system, not unlike how you get free Twitch Prime skins. That, combined with the obvious “Galaxy” tie-in, makes me feel pretty confident that this will be a Samsung Galaxy exclusive in some way.
Epic has done things like this before: we’ve gotten some free PS+ skins in the past, and the Fortnite-themed PS4 bundle also comes with an exclusive skin. I was a little surprised that we didn’t get a Nintendo-themed skin for the Switch release, though that’s likely because the house of N is still not quite ready to give Mario a straight-up assault rifle.
We’ve also heard rumor that the Galaxy S9 will come with some free V-Bucks, and that Ninja will be somehow involved in the launch. A free skin would fit that marketing strategy handily, and it would make a lot of sense as a way for Samsung to bill its new machine as the ultimate machine for one of the most popular games on the planet.
In other Android-related news, Fortnite will be skipping the Google Play store in favor of using Epic’s own launcher, a rare move for developers on Google’s platform. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was pretty clear about what was motivating the decision, as well: Epic has no interest in paying Google 30% of its revenue on Android, even if it means wading into unfamiliar territory for Android developers of major titles.
