Fortnite's changes to Battle Pass exclusivity are a hit, but fans want Epic to take it further: 'A good first step, but not what people were asking for'

Fortnite's upcoming Battle Pass will allow players to purchase items in the Item Shop after an 18-month exclusivity period, but players are still hoping for older exclusive items to be made available.

Battle Pass exclusivity will soon be a thing of the past in Fortnite, as Epic Games has confirmed that items released in future Battle Passes will have a chance of showing up in the Item Shop at a later date. While the response to this has generally been positive, fans are still hoping that things might one day go a step further. 

Cosmetics released in Battle Passes have previously only been available by unlocking them during that season, meaning that loads of skins and emotes are no longer obtainable if you didn't play at the time. This is especially frustrating when you consider how many major collab skins have been released in this way – Spider-Man, Geralt, Eren Jaeger, Darth Vader, The Mandalorian… the list goes on. The great news is that this might not be so much of an issue going forward, but the fact remains that all of those old, highly sought-after skins are still lost to the exclusivity void. 

"Should've been ALL Battle Passes, not just future ones," one player says, responding to the news on Reddit. "Hopefully they see how much support this move gets and bring back the rest."

"A good first step, but not what people were asking for," another agrees. "It's ignoring the people who want the old Battle Pass content. This is great for the future, but the old content is still locked, which is not what anyone was suggesting."

"This really should affect old passes as well," adds another. 

At this point, Epic Games hasn't said anything to indicate that this could happen, although due to a bug yesterday (coincidentally before the Battle Pass changes were announced), an exclusive, limited-time skin that was first sold in the Item Shop almost five years ago temporarily returned. Epic quickly pulled the skin from the store, and said that anyone who managed to buy it in that brief period of time would be refunded, with the skin removed from their accounts. However, the developer soon backtracked and is allowing the lucky few to keep hold of it, with a new variant of the skin to be delivered to old purchasers some time in the future. 

Needless to say, there's a lot of demand for Epic to do away with exclusive cosmetics altogether so that everyone can get their hands on their favorites, regardless of when they started playing. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but the alteration that's coming into play from next season is certainly a good start.

Be sure to check out our list of the best battle royale games for more games like Fortnite.