Three years ago, it was reported that Epic Games had considered Samus Aran for inclusion in Fortnite, as revealed in documents filed during their lawsuit against Apple. That collaboration never came to pass.
In a new interview with Stephen Totilo on his Game File Substack newsletter, former Epic Games Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard revealed why. Nintendo was not keen on seeing Samus, or their other characters, appear on other gaming platforms. They insisted that Samus would need to be exclusive to the Switch version of Fortnite, or else they would not authorize her appearance. Epic, wanting to ensure all of the game’s content could be accessible regardless of which platform players had, did not agree to those terms. That is why Samus is not in Fortnite.
This is not without precedent. Mario, Luigi and Metroid vehicles were added to Rocket League in 2017, but are exclusive to the Switch version and appear as regular cars when competing online through cross-platform play. Additionally, Samus and Link were almost included in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance’s Wii version. However, when they were demonstrated to Nintendo on the PlayStation 2 version of the game, Nintendo backed out of the collaboration and demanded their characters be cut.
It’s a shame. We could have had Samus square off with everyone from Master Chief (finally!) to Kratos, Lara Croft and other gaming titans she didn’t previously face in Super Smash Bros. Time will tell if Nintendo and Epic resolve their impasse.