Epic Games' latest collaboration is about to hit the Item Shop, bringing the Gears of War universe to its popular battle royale, Fortnite. After teasing the new skins during the Chapter 3 update, Epic Games is adding the Gears of War skins to Fortnite today.
As part of today's Fortnite Item Shop update, Gears of War protagonists Marcus Fenix and Kait Diaz will join the constantly growing roster of collaboration characters. Buying both Gears of War characters will reward players with an exclusive Emergence Hole spray, while they each come with their own variants. Kait includes her Winter Orange variant and Fortnite fans playing on Xbox Series X will get access to Marcus' matte black style.
In addition to the new Gears of War skins, the Item Shop will get the Breaker Mace pickaxe, Thumper pickaxe, Butcher Cleaver pickaxe, Skiff glider, and Knife Tricks emote. As usual, many of these will be purchasable in a bundle for a reduced v-buck price, with this bundle being called the "Emergence Gear Bundle." Fortnite players will also be able to unlock the Crimson Omen spray for free by completing some limited-time Gears of War challenges. The new quests can be tracked in the Fortnite quest menu and players have until December 17 to complete them for the spray.
Since rolling over to the new Fortnite Chapter 3 map, Epic Games has been teasing the Gears of War collaboration in the new map. Alongside the Gears of War hints, there are also hints towards Green Goblin, Miles Morales, and a new X-Men character. Fortnite fans can spot the Gears of War logo featuring a skull within a cog at Logjam Lumberyard, while the Marvel-related teasers are found in the Spider-Man-themed Daily Bugle point-of-interest.
Epic Games has a history with Gears of War, being the original developer behind the franchise before The Coalition took over with Gears of War 4. Epic Games quickly went on to release Fortnite and it has primarily focused on the battle royale since. On top of this latest Gears of War collaboration, Fortnite has received characters from the God of War, Street Fighter, and Tomb Raider franchises.
Gears of War is known for being an Xbox exclusive, but Fortnite has already offered another Xbox hero in the past. Halo's Master Chief was among Chapter 2's big collaboration skins and it looks like the Gears of War characters further solidify Epic Games' connection to Xbox. Considering Xbox Series X players get matte black Master Chief and Marcus Fenix variants in Fortnite, future Xbox characters added to the battle royale may follow the same trend.
Fortnite is available right now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.