Fortnite’s Siphon Feature Frustrated Most Players, Epic Games Said

Epic Games has addressed the biggest discussion going on in the world of Fortnite right now by discussing the removal of the Siphon mechanic. When it was in place, it allowed players to regain health and shields after eliminating an opponent as we as some extra materials to build with. If you look around different forums, especially those geared towards the competitive side of the game, you’ll see players saying the removal of the feature was a mistake. Epic Games, however, suggests that 90% of the game’s players would disagree.

The Siphon feature is at the center of the “revert” push that’s going on in Fortnite and is seen in the replies to pretty much anything Epic Games says about the game on social media. Siphon was previously only in Pop-Up Cup tournaments before being added to all modes and eventually was relegated only to the Arena matches where the most competitive players congregate. Though the more vocal parts of the community say they want it back in all modes, Epic Games appears to have some stats that say otherwise and suggest that the feature actually made most players play less.

“Everybody enjoyed receiving health and shields for eliminations after we introduced the changes to the core modes, but there was an unexpected consequence: players at large grew more frustrated with Fortnite play, feeling they had less of a chance due to encounters with high-skill players with full health and shields,” Epic Games said in a post which discussed the current state of competitive play in Fortnite. “Ultimately, Siphon increased engagement for the highest-skilled 10%, while the remaining 90% were more frustrated and played less.”

Epic Games continued to say that the feature being in every experience caused player engagement to decline in the core game modes and that it reduced the number of viable playstyles. Despite the requests from players regarding the feature, Epic Games’ closing statements seem to suggest that Siphon’s not coming back to modes outside of Arena.

“For players that prefer the sharper experience of Siphon, we do offer an always-available Arena mode that includes these Siphon and materials cap changes,” Epic Games said in closing.

The full post also addressed topics such as stretched resolution and the FOV slider and can be seen here.

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