While some speak of Fortnite's eroding place in the zeitgeist, Epic Games has still managed to skirt past the apparent layup of an Apex Legends-Star Wars crossover and landed new Star Wars content in the world's most popular battle royale. Starting today, players can purchase the Imperial Stormtrooper outfit in Fortnite from the in-game item shop. A trailer depicting the villain coming face to face with the outlandish characters of Fortnite introduced the promotion. It's also not the only bit of Star Wars content in the game, as players are reporting Imperial Star Destroyer sightings in the sky. Given how Epic loves easter eggs, don't be surprised to see more.
This latest guest appearance follows a long line of crossovers Fortnite has hosted since it exploded onto the scene. Most famously, this includes Avengers' Thanos bringing his Infinity Gauntlet to the battlefield, but more recently, other major pop culture icons have dropped in as well, including Stranger Things and the caped crusader himself, Batman.
You'd maybe expect Star Wars content to arrive in Apex Legends if it was destined to appear in a battle royale at all, given that Respawn has had an impressive year, first shadow-dropping their new battle royale shooter in February and just today launching another critical hit, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. The partnership was not to be, however, for reasons that aren't known. Maybe it would disrupt the Apex story universe. It's not as loose and whimsical a world as Epic Games' colorful shooter lives in. Or maybe Disney just saw Fortnite as more viable than the alternatives, despite their exclusivity deal with Electronic Arts to develop and publish Star Wars content.
At least EA can finally rest assured they've got a critical hit on their work history with the Star Wars license. After numerous cancellations and controversies, including a pay-to-win scandal with Battlefront 2 which erupted the games industry economy permanently and led to universally more user-friendly practices, some speculated that Disney was getting fed up with EA after partnering with them for console and PC games in Lucas' famous universe.
But by almost all accounts, Jedi Fallen Order is a hit, sitting today with an 85 OpenCritic average and recommended by 87% of the 40 critics that have weighed in so far.
