What Parents Should Know About the Loot Box Changes Coming to Fortnite

For now, "Battle Royale" mode seems off limits. But within other "Island" experiences, you should be aware of what you can and cannot control for your children.

Loot boxes, where you pay money to gain access to a randomized virtual item based entirely on chance, are coming soon to Fortnite. Loot boxes have exploded in the past few decades, as companies shifted to offering players items for purchase, rather than given freely in game. Fortnite is calling them “paid random items,” and at least so far, it appears these “paid random items” will be limited inside user-created experiences.

(Fortnite calls these experience “islands.”)

Crossplay will refer to them as loot boxes—because they are loot boxes. They’ve been under increased scrutiny in recent years, and some countries, like the Netherlands and Belgium, banned them. Others, like the UK, have restrictions. Players under the age of 18 can’t buy one without parental consent. Bans have been few and far between.

Loot boxes were once part of Fortnite’s “Save the World” mode, but never appeared in the much more popular “Battle Royale” mode that made Fortnite into a phenomenon.

The first details on Fortnite’s loot boxes came as part of a recent developer update. It’s an extension of another recent decision to allow Fortnite developers to sell in-game items, despite Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney being against the idea just months ago.

“If you look at how Roblox monetization worked,” said Sweeney to The Game Business, “when you’re spending money in an experience, you’re mostly buying items that only work there. You go play another mode or into another Roblox experience, and it doesn’t work. That’s something we are worried about as a concept. If that becomes the way gaming works, there’s going to be a lot of poor deals offered to customers.”

Times have changed, apparently, even only over the course of a few months. But the changes are almost here, which means the details about how it works are trickling in.

This would be an example of an in-game items, not a “paid random items,” aka loot box.

One of my longtime requests for Roblox has been the option to turn off even seeing in-app purchases for children under a certain age. There’s no option for that in Roblox, nor for Fortnite’s loot boxes. However, parents can flat out disable the ability for a child account in Fortnite to buy loot boxes. In-game, I’m told, players might see the prompt where you could purchase a loot box, but you won’t see any details about it.

“How it works is if the Parental Control is set to disallow paid random items, they will not see the item details screen, or the purchase button, and will not be able to purchase paid random items with V-Bucks,” said an Epic Games spokesperson.

Is that far enough? No. I’d like it to disappear entirely. But it’s better than Roblox!

The countries that have banned (or restricted) loot boxes include Singapore, Qatar, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, and United Kingdom (under 18). In n March 2026, Brazil will join them (also under 18).

It’s also possible, according to Epic, for developers to block sales of loot boxes to anyone under 18, regardless of regional laws! Obviously, you can’t offer them in places where they’re blocked, but you can choose to block them in places they are allowed.

(I do not expect many creators will choose that option.)

There is a world where Epic Games decided that Fortnite, as a platform, would not allow loot boxes for anyone under the age of 18—period. Local laws be damned, it’s not right. But likely because Fornite is feeling increased pressure from the ongoing success that Roblox’s having in capturing the attention (and dollars) of audiences, it mean they’re punting that decision to regional rules and regulations—and developers.

“As Fortnite has grown into an ecosystem where developers are building awesome games and growing their own player bases,” said the same Epic Games spokesperson, “this gives them more agency over their creative and commercial decisions.”

In all instances, Fortnite developers have been instructed to “disclose the actual numerical odds of what the player may receive before the player makes a purchase.” Revealing odds has been the middle ground instead of banning loot boxes in many places, but it’s like disclosing the dangers of something on the box: is anyone reading?

One of the more interesting guidelines is Epic Games policing language developers can use to sell loot boxes to younger audiences. It’s worth reading this entire passage:

“In your offers, you must ensure the language you use relating to transactions is not misleading or overtly pressuring. In addition, you must not pressure or directly prompt a minor (for this restriction, players under 18 unless specified to the contrary below) to make a purchase or to ask their parents to make a purchase for the minor.

If your offer language directly tells a player to make a purchase— for example, by using a command like “buy” or “order” at the start of a sentence, uses all capital letters or an exclamation point when making a prompt—such as “BUY NOW”!—it’s likely considered a direct prompt and may have age and location restrictions.”

An unacceptable phrase, in Epic Games’ eyes, is “Buy Now!” It’s what they’re calling a “direct prompt.” An acceptable phrase, however, is “Available now!” Some examples:

• Unacceptable: “Grab it!”

• Acceptable: “Available for purchase!”

• Unacceptable: “Upgrade/Play!/Try!/Unlock!” (when a purchase is required)

• Acceptable: “See [developer name] Shop for details!”

• Unacceptable: “Buy one get one for free!”

• Acceptable: “If you buy one, you’ll get one for free!”

“They are examples (not exhaustive) based on general best practices and recommendations from console partners,” said the Epic Games spokesperson.

If you use a “direct prompt,” a number of regions will restrict the purchase, which is an interesting wrinkle: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada (under 13), Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (under 17), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom (under 16).

You’ll notice a huge absence there: United States. Anything goes here, naturally. Alas.

These changes, in total, put Fortnite much more squarely in line with Roblox. It’s disappointing to see, if not unexpected. The question is what happens next. At the moment, these changes are only available in developer previews and are not live yet.

Will Epic Games consider adding loot boxes—sorry, paid random items—to Fortnite?

A friendly reminder: Fortnite has extensive parental controls. You can access them by logging into your Epic Account. It’s always worth checking parental controls regularly!

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• We’re playing slightly less Fortnite than before, because my daughter keeps telling me she’s “waiting for the next update.” I don’t know what she means.

• 99 Nights in the Forest remains the biggest constant. We might ease up our “no chat” restrictions because of some recent changes to Roblox’s chat structure.

• A tangent, but I really hope Wicked: For Good is, uh, good. My kids have never been this hyped for a specific movie before. We’re doing daily countdown chants.