Just the other day, Epic both announced the removal of Infinity Blade from the iOS app store and added the eponymous sword to Fortnite. Now the latter is also getting removed as Epic admits they badly misjudged the balancing, providing one final removal for a game series that has already been shuttered.
Fortnite recently introduced “Mythic” weapons, which as the name implies, were supposed to be powerful and rare. They were certainly powerful, but they were not nearly rare enough, which drew ire from the fanbase. Epic announced nerfs to the sword yesterday on Reddit, but it didn’t solve the fundamental problems that the sword from Epic’s mobile game series, which couldn’t be built against.
Infinity Blades showed up once per game, but they were not random. They would always show up in the same place and, as a theoretical trade-off, took up an entire inventory’s worth of space. The highs were much better than the lows, though, as Infinity Blade-wielders got buffed health and shields and could tear through any structure with a swing of the sword.
In a Twitter post today, Epic announced the removal of the item based on how overpowered it could be and the lack of good counters.
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
Basically, a player who was good at the game could grab the sword and pretty much not lose. The entire thing has gotten Epic rethinking Mythic items in general, of which the Infinity Blade was the first. In a time where Epic is also emphasizing getting players to build intricate structures to fight in, having things to immediately demolish them seems counterproductive.
