BTC Wires had previously reported that Fortnite had added Monero
BTC Wires had previously reported that Fortnite had added Monero as a payment option and that customers could now buy Fortnite merch via Monero. However, looks like all is not too well between the two giants.
There has been an exchange of tweets between Monero’s core team member and Riccardo Spagni which indicate a rather hostile relationship between the two. If we are to go by this exchange, it is quite clear that Monero is not being accepted as payments by the gaming giant, Epic Games.
Apparently, no such partnership existed between Monero and Epic Games, neither is there a possibility of one in the near future.
Tim Sweeney, the Founder of Epic Games, had tweeted that the acceptance of Monero payments was accidental and short lived. He said:
“We worked with a partner to open a merchandise store, and somewhere along the way Monero payment was enabled.”
According to Sweeney, the Fortnite Merchant Store made a mistake and accidentally enabled Monero as a payment option. On behalf of Monero, clarifications have been forthcoming as well. Spagni clarified that Epic Games was never a merchant and that there was some miscommuniaction.
The crypto community is expectedly not buying this. They are questioning how can Epic Games have made such a mammoth mistake of accidentally accepting crypto? They feel that something fishy and suspicious is underway behind this goof up.
Spagni tweeted that Epic Games was not looking to re-enable Monero payments as of now.
Had a meeting, Epic don’t want the merchant to re-enable crypto payments for now. The big problem is people made a VERY big deal about this; journalists claimed a partnership, people threatened to file Suspicious Activity Reports, & altcoins complained about not being accepted.
— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) January 9, 2019
Spagni currently believes that too much was made out of the situation. He also feels that at the moment, the circumstances are not right for any big merchants, since the environment is quite hostile. There is a tiff between altcoins and bitcoins, so if one is accepted over the other, the left out faction threatens to take their business to someone else. Hence, sad news for those who were looking to purchase Fortnite merch with Monero, that’s not happening anytime soon!