Is 'Fortnite' Becoming the Go-To Platform for Collaboration?

Between franchise partnerships, entertainment crossovers and fashion collaborations, Fortnite is seemingly becoming the go-to platform for collaborations across genres.

Most recently, the Epic Games title debuted a selection of Dune skins based on Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya‘s characters from the film, heightening the excitement surrounding the movie’s imminent unveiling. As with most Fortnite collaborations, the game’s Dune partnership arrives with a range of various props, including a Sand Walk emote, Twinblades for harvesting and Fremkits.

The Dune crossover is just one example of Fortnite’s continuous development of in-game transformations, which have come to serve as a new marketing outlet that several other industries are beginning to latch on to.

Take fashion, for example — last month, Balenciaga joined forces with Fortnite to construct a series of in-game outfits as well as a limited-run of physical apparel. The gamer reached into the fashion house’s archives to create four meticulously detailed outfits for fan-favorite characters in the game, along with several matching real-life iterations of the same pieces. Quite the appealing addition to an avid gamer’s wardrobe, those IRL designs are now selling for up to $1,290 USD.

Elsewhere, Fortnite has already taken a sizable bite into the world of fictional superheroes, specifically within the Justice League. Having previously debuted playable Superman and Batman skins, the game added a new Wonder Woman skin to its ever-expanding, super-powered catalog in August, complete with an Armored variant. The game held a Wonder Woman Cup ahead of the skin’s launch to amp up excitement surrounding its official launch in the Item Shop, showcasing the expansive opportunities for in-game activations that can accompany each collaboration.

And through its Icon series, Fortnite is able to tap into the dedicated fanbases of some of pop culture’s biggest names, including Travis Scott, Major Lazer, Marshmello and more. Most recently, the multiplayer game title added five-time Latin Grammy winner J Balvin to the series, arriving with an all-new outfit, emote, glider and back bling that unsheathes as a pickaxe.

In another corner of culture, Fornite recently made its first foray into the art world with renowned New York-based pop artist KAWS. As part of a Halloween campaign dubbed Fortnightmares, the gamer enlisted the visionary’s familiar iconography for a collection of Skeleton-style skins in orange, green, pink and bone under a collection titled “COMPANION.”

As Fortnite‘s repertoire of collaborations continues to expand, it’s become evident that the gamer is able to successfully tap into a plethora of cultural genres through innovative activations and its popular in-game skins. The question we’re left with is: who’s next?

Elsewhere in gaming, Among Us is headed to Xbox and PlayStation on December 14.