The Fortnite merchandise store has dropped Monero (XMR) from its payment options after the Epic Games CEO calls its inclusion “accidental.”

It’s amazing how quickly a story can turn in just a few days. Last week, BitcoinerX reported that the wildly popular Fortnite online game had added the Monero cryptocurrency as a payment option. This was seen as a pretty big move as the game has over 200 million players. However, the celebration of greater crypto acceptance was premature as the game has dropped Monero from its list of available payment methods.

Accident Adding Monero to Fortnite Store

Over the weekend, the CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, took to Twitter and announced that the online game was not accepting cryptocurrency. He wrote:

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.

Googling this, there’s quite a rumor mill out there. No, Epic doesn’t have any cryptocurrency partners and aren’t in any crypto partnership discussions with anyone. We do read lots of papers and talk to smart people to learn more in anticipation of an eventual intercept. — Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 6, 2019

The GloBee option that enabled Monero (XMR) has been removed entirely from the merchandise store checkout. It’s a shame as gamers are much more inclined to be interested in cryptocurrency due to their age and familiarity with alternative forms of exchange, a hallmark of most online games.

What Next?

It would have been really interesting to follow Fortnite if they actually accepted cryptocurrency. As the game generated $3 billion in profits last year, the amount of crypto they could have picked up would have been staggering.

One wonders which game developer would be willing to adopt this disruptive technology. Online gaming and crypto would go great together, and any game developer looking for profit would be a fool to turn their nose up at gaining a new revenue stream via virtual currencies.

Having a major game studio enable cryptocurrency payments would be a huge leap forward in mainstream adoption. While one might worry about volatility often associated with crypto, this could be mitigated by near-instantaneous exchanges into fiat or through the acceptance of stablecoins. If a major online retail outlet such as Overstock can accept multiple forms of cryptocurrency, then a cutting-edge online game should be able to as well.

Are you bummed that Fortnite is no longer accepting Monero? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Fortnite, Twitter/@TimSweeneyEpic, and YouTube/@Fortnite.