Former Fortnite developer Donald Mustard has revealed that Nintendo insisted Samus could only appear on Switch, nixing appearance alongside Kratos and Master Chief
Back in 2021, court documents released as part of Epic’s legal battle with Apple revealed that Epic had, at some point, planned to put Samus Aran in Fortnite. But a skin based on the futuristic bounty hunter from Nintendo’s Metroid series never materialized.
Given the documents also mentioned some already-released characters including Kratos from God of War and Halo’s Master Chief, some speculated that Samus might have been intended to represent Nintendo alongside these PlayStation and Xbox mascots in Fortnite’s Gaming Legends Series. Kratos and the Chief were both added in late 2020.
Now, thanks to an interview with former Epic creative lead Donald Mustard in the Game File newsletter, we know why Samus never joined them.
It seems Nintendo had been keen to see the Samus in Fortnite, but couldn’t countenance her appearing on rival console hardware. The company requested she be exclusive to the Switch version of the game, but met a red line of Epic’s own.
