Fortnite‘s Getting A Monthly Subscription Service

Starting next week with Chapter 2, Season 5, Fortnite will get a monthly subscription service for cosmetics and currency. Subscribers will get the latest battle pass, and each month they’ll get 1,000 V-Bucks and some cosmetics.

The $11.99 subscription, called Fortnite Crew, was announced this morning. In addition to the battle pass, each month players will get 1,000 bonus V-Bucks (atop whatever V-Bucks you’d earn through the pass) and, according to the PlayStation blog, “An exclusive bundle of a new Outfit plus at least one new matching accessory (like a Glider, Pickaxe, or Emote),” which they keep even if their subscription ends. The first will be Galaxia, a cosmic-themed outfit, alongside a pickaxe and back bling. Future exclusive outfits will be revealed ahead of the next month. If you subscribe after owning the battle pass, you’ll be refunded 950 V-Bucks. (Update, 11:08am—Here’s the FAQ with more details, including the note that subscriptions are tied to the platform you purchased them on; as usual for Fortnite, your V-Bucks might not be available on all the platforms you play on, though you’ll still be able to access the cosmetics.)

Hints of a subscription service have been dropping around Fortnite datamining communities for a while, so this isn’t a complete surprise. The PlayStation blog notes the service “launches on December 2 with the arrival of Chapter 2 – Season 5,” while Fortnite’s season-ending event takes place at 4pm ET on December 1. Dataminers have been suggesting there’ll be some downtime between the much-hyped event and Season 5, and this timing could lend some credence to that theory. We’ll see next week.