It was over a year ago now that we first saw Fortnite Festival arrive with Fortnite Chapter 5, the season in which the metaverse of Fortnite began with their expansion into other genres of games all within the Fortnite universe. Fortnite Festival has been doing well for a while, but a newly announced change is set to shake-up how players can purchase songs, known as Jam Tracks in-game, and unfortunately it’s not a player-friendly choice being made.
Instead of being able to purchase any Jam Track at any time, players will now only be able to grab them for a week, before they rotate out of the in-game store, similar to how Fortnite cosmetics are handled. This is a pretty disappointing change, with the aim clearly being to use the fear of missing out (FOMO for short) to encourage players to spend their V-Bucks on Jam Tracks sooner or risk losing the song for months until it eventually rotate back into the store.
According to the official Fortnite Festival social media accounts, they want to “improve the overall experience with Jam Tracks”, calling the changes “a more curated approach”. Whilst it is more curated, there’s also no reason to restrict what Jam Tracks players can access – especially when the game is so heavily influenced by Rock Band, where the entire point was being able to play whatever songs you want, whenever you want to. The item shop can be a little overrun by Jam Tracks sometimes, but they could just highlight a few at a time, “curated” as they say, and then add a search button to browse through all available Jam Tracks.
Fortnite Festival has made some positive changes as it has grown and evolved, such as the addition of local multiplayer, and expanding the number of featured (free to try) Jam Tracks to let players try new songs out. That makes it extra disappointing that Harmonix, the development team that is also owned by Epic Games, would allow a less player-friendly approach in favor of one that so shamelessly prioritizes profit over music.
Have you played Fortnite Festival? How do you feel about the change in approach towards how players can find and purchase Jam Tracks? Sound off in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more gaming news.
