At this point, Fortnite is an advertising platform for other brands, with a near-endless amount of collaborations which often begin before the previous one has ended. Fortnite is no stranger to including characters from popular video game franchises including Halo, God of War, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter. When it comes to gaming collaborations, there is one that stands out as above the rest as being the most highly requested, Super Mario and other characters from Nintendo IPs.
During an interview with Axios, Sax Persson, the head of the Fortnite ecosystem at Epic Games, explained their previous attempts at getting Nintendo characters into Fortnite.
“Nintendo has their strategy and we have our strategy, and we hope at some point [to use their characters]. Our players would love it.”
Kit Ellis, a former public relations manager at Nintendo has also spoken about this subject in the past, explaining that Nintendo doesn’t need Fortnite and bringing its characters into a game that goes against its brand ethos has no benefit to it.
“They’ve spent decades building up these characters, building up this IP to the point where it is now where The Mario Movie can be a billion dollars and Nintendo Switch is the best-selling console. They can just be one of a dozen characters that all play the same, put into a game that’s all about shooting people and is so against their brand. It makes no sense, this isn’t gonna happen.”
Nintendo has always been against having its characters display acts of violence, especially using guns. While it would be incredibly fun to run around the Fortnite island as Mario, Luigi, or Link, it seems incredibly unlikely that it will ever happen. But, never say never as many IPs have come to the game that seemed unexpected. With Fortnite expanding into user-generated content and becoming more than a Battle Royale game, it is possible that something Nintendo-related could come to the game in the future, such as a mode similar to LEGO Fortnite, but whether that would mean skins would come to the game remains to be seen.
For more Insider Gaming, check out the news that Fortnite Festival guitars are being released in 2024.
