Epic Games recently announced that the inclusion of the Monero cryptocurrency as a payment method in the item shop of the famous Fortnite game would have been just a random error.
There was a lot of excitement last week when Retail Row, the official store of the game, had also included XMR among the accepted payment methods through the GloBee payment platform.
The addition had amazed Fortnite players because it wasn’t announced by the community of Monero nor by Epic Games, even if it would have been a fundamental choice, worthy of an announcement.
At the same time, the fact that Monero was accepted and not bitcoin had raised several allegations, including those of the guru Riccardo Spagni who, via a tweet, had suggested a preference for a cryptocurrency that would protect privacy in a better way compared to BTC.
Lack of privacy, but they’re considering LN because it restores *some* privacy to Bitcoin.
— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) January 1, 2019
The new Epic Games statement, shared on Twitter by the CEO Tim Sweeney, clarifies the randomness and the exceptionality of the fact.
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
Therefore, Monero was immediately removed from the Fortnite item shop.
Already last Saturday, January 5th, Retail Row no longer showed GloBee among the different payment options.
The mistake would have been part of an update of the shop, with unexpected results. So, for now, Fortnite is not amongst the other video games that accept cryptocurrencies.
Other online games, such as Lordmancer 2 and Vibe or Die, allow using and earning cryptocurrencies within the game, facilitating trading between players, often young and without credit cards.
