Free2play games with in-game shops became popular in Asia in 00s - mostly because piracy prevented traditional offline titles from taking off in many second world countries at all. But Fortnite and the latest breed of western free2play games is very significantly different, because they are not pay2win.
The shift hapenned in 2010s, at the same time as free2play gmaes moved west. For example, World of Tanks had some pay2win shop mechanics, but the core of monetization was on purchasing faster progress: you would spend less time grinding or new gear, but once you got into battle with other players matched to you, you wouldn't get any advantage. Such game design focus was already pretty risky and revolutionary at the time when other free2play developers considered non-paying users as cannon fodder for paying ones, and it paid back with a much higher % of paying users and user loyalty, although the game did have a significantly lower ARPPU, relying on the mass of paying subscribers instead of a tiny amount of whales.
Yeah, I agree - I think that shift is a part of what prompted the change I mentioned. I just feel like there were already a smattering of other games that followed the "convenience" or "vanity" based cash shop model and Fortnite isn't that novel.
The shift hapenned in 2010s, at the same time as free2play gmaes moved west. For example, World of Tanks had some pay2win shop mechanics, but the core of monetization was on purchasing faster progress: you would spend less time grinding or new gear, but once you got into battle with other players matched to you, you wouldn't get any advantage. Such game design focus was already pretty risky and revolutionary at the time when other free2play developers considered non-paying users as cannon fodder for paying ones, and it paid back with a much higher % of paying users and user loyalty, although the game did have a significantly lower ARPPU, relying on the mass of paying subscribers instead of a tiny amount of whales.