<p>Steve Allison, the General Manager of the Epic Games Store, has confirmed that the storefront's latest wave of "gift-with-purchase" Fortnite collaborations is directly modeled after the success of Team Fortress 2.</p>
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<p>While Epic has previously dabbled in these incentives—such as gifting the Alan Wake outfit to players who purchased *Alan Wake 2* on their platform in 2023—the company is significantly scaling its efforts for 2026. Fans can already anticipate several high-profile tie-ins, including a *Resident Evil: Requiem* collaboration featuring a Grace Ashcroft skin and a *Crimson Desert* crossover that rewards buyers with a Kliff cosmetic.</p>
<p>In a recent social media post regarding the Kliff skin, Allison noted that this initiative is merely the beginning of a broader campaign led by the Epic Games Store team. He revealed plans to expand the program to over 100 partnerships annually, emphasizing that the strategy was "conceived to help developers drive more game sales."</p>
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<p>Observers were quick to note the similarities between Epic's new strategy and Valve's historical approach with *Team Fortress 2*. For years, Steam offered exclusive cosmetic rewards for purchasing titles like *Alien Isolation*, *The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth*, and *Sleeping Dogs*. Other projects, such as Telltale’s *Poker Night at the Inventory* duology, allowed players to unlock gear by completing specific in-game challenges.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Definitely inspired by exactly that. Ages ago when I was at Telltale Games we did TF hats as a gift with purchase every chance we could as it would always put our games in the top 5 sellers for a good 1-2 weeks. We tested this a lot late in 2025 and the lifts to partners sales… <a href="https://twitter.com/halfbakedSteve/status/2016664334915469498">January 29, 2026</a></p>
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<p>Allison openly acknowledged the inspiration, citing his own professional history with the *Team Fortress 2* model. He explained that during his tenure at Telltale Games, bundling "TF hats" as purchase bonuses was a reliable way to propel their titles into the top five best-sellers for weeks at a time. This historical success motivated Epic to apply a similar logic to Fortnite, with Allison noting that preliminary tests in late 2025 yielded "impressive" results for their partners.</p>
<p>This evolving strategy appears to be a win-win for the ecosystem: it provides developers with a powerful sales boost while offering Fortnite enthusiasts exclusive new loot. Furthermore, for Epic, it serves as a strategic incentive to lure gamers toward major third-party releases on a storefront that has occasionally struggled to overcome community skepticism.</p>
<p><em>The recent Fortnite x South Park crossover has fans reminiscing about a long-lost GTA-inspired project from 2005.</em></p>
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<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Source: gamesradar.com
