Nintendo wanted Samus to be a Switch-exclusive Fortnite skin
According to former Epic Games chief creative officer Donald Mustard, when Metroid's Samus was supposed to appear in Fortnite, the idea was eventually scrapped as Nintendo wanted the skin to be exclusive to Switch systems.
The details:
Back in 2021, during Epic Games’ legal battle with Apple, court documents revealed that Samus was originally planned to be added to Fortnite. Halo's Master Chief and God of War's Kratos were added to the title in late 2020 as part of its "Gaming Legends" series, with Samus believed to have been Nintendo's representative.
In an interview with Game File, Mustard confirmed that Nintendo had denied the offer to include the bounty hunter as it “got really hung up” about allowing the character to appear on other systems. Due to this, it had requested that Epic somehow only show the Samus skin to Switch players, which the developer refused. “For me and for all of Epic, we’re like, ‘That is an absolute must. We want to make sure that Fortnite is the same experience, no matter what screen or device you’re playing on,’” Mustard said.
Despite failing to secure Samus for Fortnite, Epic's executive vice president Saxs Persson stated in an interview with Axios (via Eurogamer) last year that the company is still willing to collaborate with Nintendo to bring its characters to the game, even if it is difficult to win over the company. "Nintendo has their strategy and we have our strategy, and we hope at some point to use their characters," Persson went on to say. "Our players would love it."
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