Fortnite developer Epic Games has apologised to fans and removed a new weapon known as the Infinity Blade from the game, after admitting that they “messed up” with this one, and that the blade is so powerful that any player who wields it essentially becomes indestructible.
The hotly-hyped “mythic” weapon, which would spawn once per game in a pre-defined location, would replace the entire inventory of the player who picked it up, giving them near-infinite power to slice the shit out of every other other person around them.
The blade gave players increased mobility, HP regeneration, health and shields, allowing them to smash down structures instantly and deal significant damage to others, with no viable way to counter. While it sounds fun as heck to wield something like that, those who fell victim to the blade were understandably less enthusiastic.
Reddit, naturally enough, had a lot of feelings about it.
The addition of the new item was also controversial in that it was brought into the game on the same day as the North American Winter Royale tournament, in which pro Fortnite players competed for a prize pool of $1 million, in a contest that was streamed on Epic’s official Twitch channel.
Some of the resulting carnage was captured by the popular Fortnite Funny Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/FortniteFunny/status/1072668395840126976
In response to a strong backlash from players, Epic initially reduced some of the sword’s health-restoring powers, but overnight, they released a statement admitting that they “messed up” when they rolled out the overpowered Infinity Blade.
The went on to add that the blade has been “vaulted” – meaning that it has been taken out of the game, possibly to be returned in a future patch after a reworking or redesign of some kind – and that they will re-evaluate their approach to mythic items.
Heya folks,
We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game.
The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items.
Thanks for calling us out on this!
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 14, 2018
Some have speculated that the blade’s inclusion represented an attempt by Epic to troll players or remind pros that they must constantly adapt their style within the bounds of the chaotic game, although they have not commented on this.
