Fortnite fans were greeted with a piece of rather unexpected news from the developers, Epic Games, yesterday. In close to seven years of release, the development announced the removal of one of its most fan-favorite features. Although the change was for “evolution” purposes, it clearly has caused a lot of uproar among the fans of the franchise.
The change has raked up controversy among the Fortnite community for multiple reasons. Epic Games did address one of the many issues, however, the remaining issues remain unanswered.
Fortnite removes cosmetic rarities
Epic Games made a controversial change to Fortnite’s cosmetics rarity with the latest 29.20 update in Chapter 5 Season 2. Epic Games published a blog post announcing the changes stating that colors, tags, and rarities that distinguished cosmetic items would eliminated from the Fortnite locker and Item Shop going forward.
The post mentioned that it was “retiring the old Battle Royale-inspired system of colors and tags for cosmetic quality,” as part of the ongoing evolution of the Item Shop. However, it is not simple and straightforward as it may sound. Just the mere removal of cosmetic rarity has multiple consequences attached, which the fans have rightly pointed out.
Fortnite Removing Cosmetic Rarities causes MULTIPLE Issues:
1. Legenary skins don't have to be Legendary Quality
2. Makes it harder to sort through outfits
3. Fortnite can price any skin at any price point
4. Lockers look messierWhat do You think about the New locker changes? pic.twitter.com/QWvgqVW1Xd
— SnazzyBlocks (@SnazzyBlocks) April 9, 2024
Majorly, the removal of Fortnite cosmetic rarities has four issues. These include:
- Legendary skins may not necessarily have Legendary Quality
Legendary skins in Fortnite are some of the most expensive ones. However, being the expensive ones does not imply they have the best quality as well. The presence of cosmetic rarity allowed for more uniqueness thus improving its quality among the other skins. Besides, cosmetics having legendary rarity are usually the most powerful having the lowest spawning chances.
- It makes it harder to sort through outfits in the cosmetic menu
After the removal of rarity, skins are now arranged alphabetically in the menu, this is causing confusion among players who are used to the old system since the beginning of the game. The alphabetically arranged skins in the locker led to players feeling disoriented and scrambling to find their favorite cosmetics.
- The developers get the opportunity to price any skin at any price point going forward
Players are also concerned that since now that the rarity has been removed it could lead to the potential inflation of skin prices. The earlier specified rarity tiers offered a sense of predictability and budgeting for players. However, now the budgets of players would go for a toss.
- The absence of rarities makes lockers look messier
Fortnite players have expressed their thoughts on how cosmetic rarity changes disrupt their locker layouts. The lockers, now, after the removal of rarities seem to be in a frenzy, thus wreaking havoc in their locker organization.
These reasons, naturally had players fuming. Notably, it is the first time ever since the launch that the developers have taken the call to remove the rarity feature, which has been there ever since the game came into being.
Epic Games addressed the price change concerns
The players are particularly concerned about Epic changing up the pricing models after the change. Amidst the controversies and backlash, Epic Games stepped forward to share its approach to the change.
Like several other users, a user named ‘HappyPower’ expressed their anger behind the rarity changes. To this, the official Fortnite account replied and stated that the changes were made to “remove outdated Battle Royale-inspired systems.”
Hey – the change to remove color labeling from Shop items doesn’t change our approach or the way we price things. We just wanna simplify the appearance of Fortnite (Locker, Shop, etc) and remove outdated Battle Royale-inspired systems.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 9, 2024
They wrote,
“Hey – the change to remove color labeling from Shop items doesn’t change our approach or the way we price things. We just wanna simplify the appearance of Fortnite (Locker, Shop, etc) and remove outdated Battle Royale-inspired systems.”
Although the response from developers was not enough to offer players much confidence, at least they did address the issue. Based on their response, several players also questioned Epic’s definition of simplicity.
However, Epic at least responded to the issue, unlike the other issues that are left hanging in the air, causing more and more anger among the community.
