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Epic Games CEO: Oops! Enabling Monero in Fortnite Store Was Accidental; No Talks with any Crypto Company
Oh Monero, Monero… this must be really awkward for you. (And to be honest, for us too.)
After last week we reported that the official merch store (Retail Row) of the incredibly popular video game Fortnite opened its crypto payment gates exclusively to Monero, now we can report that… well, oopsy doopsy, it appears that it was all just an intentional mistake of sorts, and the implementation of such a cryptocurrency payment option had been somehow accidental.
The disappointing news came directly from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney – or rather, directly from his Twitter account – clarifying that implementing Monero in the merch story had been an inadvertent move, and that Monero was never supposed to be available as a payment option.
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.https://t.co/vzmSCMey3T
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 6, 2019
Sweeney went on to elaborate that as a company, Epic Games is not prepared yet to implement any cryptocurrency into its platforms as crypto is still too volatile and prone to fraud. Trying not to step on anybody’s toes (at least not more than he has to), Sweeney also stressed that there are a lot of company employees that are “big fans” of the decentralized technology behind crypto.
Many of us at Epic are big fans of the decentralized computing tech underlying cryptocurrency, however a lot more work is needed on volatility and fraud-proofing before bringing it to such a broad audience that includes younger gamers.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 6, 2019
Finally, Sweeney reemphasized that Epic Games doesn’t collaborate with any cryptocurrency parent company, and again refuted the rumor that they are partaking in talks with crypto firms about enabling any crypto payment option in the merch store.
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
While these tidings are clearly quite disheartening to both Monero and crypto fans, it seems that Monero at least gained a few healthy percentages in its price, and didn’t erase them following Sweeney’s clarification (at least not as of press time): following the now-false news, Monero price initially jumped from around $47 to $55, and currently it is trading at about $52.
