Will the LEGO Fortnite sets be released in China?
Chinese LEGO fans are concerned that the new range of LEGO Fortnite sets may not make it to their home country, where the battle royale video game shut down almost three years ago.
The LEGO Group has just announced a four-strong wave of LEGO Fortnite sets, arriving on shelves some 10 months after the digital LEGO Fortnite video game experience. But Chinese LEGO fan media BricksJoy reports that ‘this series will not be released in mainland [China] for the time being’, despite the fact that listings for all four sets – 77070 Durrr Burger, 77071 Supply Llama, 77072 Peely Bone and 77073 Battle Bus – are currently up on LEGO.com in China.
It wouldn’t be too surprising to see the LEGO Group pass over China as a potential market for Fortnite sets, though, because it’s currently impossible to play the game there. Fortnite developer Epic Games partnered with Chinese tech giant Tencent in 2018 to launch a heavily-modified version of the battle royale game with unique cosmetics, but shuttered its servers in November 2021.
Epic didn’t provide any further details on why it closed down the Chinese Fortnite experience, but The Verge speculated at the time that it may have been a consequence of China ramping up restrictions on video games for kids, limiting children under the age of 18 to only three hours of gaming per week. That new legislation came not long after China banned kids from gaming between 10pm and 8am on weekdays, using a facial recognition system to catch kids playing past curfew.
With no digital LEGO Fortnite experience to inspire purchases of the physical LEGO Fortnite sets, it would make sense for the LEGO Group not to stock the upcoming releases in China. It wouldn’t be the first time the company has chosen not to release sets in that market, either: according to BricksJoy’s Dylan Chow, neither VIDIYO nor Hidden Side made it to China.
Dylan tells Brick Fanatics that the official explanation for their absenteeism in China has never been disclosed, but speculates that it could be because both themes relied on an app – the approval of which may face issues in China. The LEGO Fortnite sets don’t require an app to function properly, but the absence of their source material feels only one step removed from the situation with VIDIYO and Hidden Side.
All that said, the product listings for the LEGO Fortnite sets on LEGO.com in China suggest we can’t rule out their release there altogether. We’ll find out for sure come October. For now, check out all four of the new LEGO Fortnite models in the table below, and click through to pre-order your copies (where available).
| LEGO set | Price | Pieces | Release date | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77070 Durrr Burger | £12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99 | 193 | October 1, 2024 | Pre-order now |
| 77071 Supply Llama | £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99 | 691 | October 1, 2024 | Pre-order now |
| 77072 Peely Bone | £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 | 1,414 | October 1, 2024 | Pre-order now |
| 77073 Battle Bus | £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 | 954 | October 1, 2024 | Pre-order now |
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- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
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