Fortnite changes Strombreaker's exclusivity, fans rejoice

Fortnite has strong ties with Disney, which in turn makes them the perfect platform for MCU collaborations. Over time, the number of characters added to the game has skyrocketed. In Chapter 3 alone, there have been three MCU Battle Pass exclusive skins.

While not everyone will agree that these are the best in the game, they show consistency to a large extent. Thus, on the day Thor: Love And Thunder debuted, the Mighty Thor and Thor Odinson skins were added to the game as well. And, as far as skins go, these two look amazing.

However, there was a small problem. While the cosmetics were fabulous, one of the main attractions, Stormbreaker (Harvesting Tool), was limited to specific skins. This left fans enraged as many pointed out that it wasn't just unfair but wrong, according to Marvel's lore. As it turns out, Epic Games took note of this and decided to do something about it.

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Yes, even Batman can now wield Stormbreaker in Fortnite

Out of the blue, a few hours ago, Fortnite Status on Twitter posted an update pertaining to an early downtime. Rather than the update being on Tuesday, it will commence on Monday. In a follow-up tweet, they also revealed that the Stormbreaker Pickaxe and Stormbreaker's Flighty Glider would be made usable by all outfits following the update.

As far as victories go in the community, this has been a major win for everyone. Furthermore, since the Russo Brothers specifically mentioned that Stormbreaker could be wielded by anyone, gatekeeping it from the get-go was never going to work.

For a game that prides itself on lore, not staying true to it was sort of a low blow. Thankfully, the issue has been resolved, and loopers are now free to use the Pickaxe and Glider as they see fit. Here are a few reactions from fans:

While this is indeed a major win for the community, one has to ponder why Epic Games made Stormbreaker exclusive in the first place. Did they not read up on Marvel's lore? Or were they simply trying to gate-keep certain cosmetics? Well, it's a bit more complicated than that.

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Why was Stormbreaker exclusive in the first place?

While Epic Games will never reveal the exact reason, there is one that comes to mind. The most logical probability was that they had to keep Stormbreaker (MCU's property) away from skins that originated in DCU. However, this is likely something that they did not choose to do.

Given the cold war that has existed between these two comic universes, it's a given that neither would want their characters to wield weapons that belonged to the other. But at the end of the day, that's what's going to happen when intellectual property collides in the metaverse.

If brands want to be active and present in Fortnite, they'll have to learn to coexist or go elsewhere. Given the massive profits to be had, not jumping on the bandwagon would be a loss. Perhaps Disney realized this and decided to revoke the cosmetic's exclusive status in Fortnite to make it more lore accurate.

With that being said, it was a smart move for them to take this route. Given how iconic and sentimental a weapon Stormbreaker is, limiting it to just four skins would be a travesty. Hopefully, collaborators will learn from this and take notes to avoid similar fiascos in future collaborations.