Fortnite developer Epic Video games has issued a recent consumer survey polling gamers over its pet-like Sidekicks — and specifically, the necessity to rebuy every creature to get one other model, after your fundamental design selections are made everlasting.
At the moment, Fortnite forces followers to lock of their Sidekick’s physique coloration, form and elegance upon first use, and warns gamers that their determination can’t be modified once more.
For now, only one Sidekick animal is offered — banana canine hybrid Peels, which you get two of inside Fortnite’s present The Simpsons battle move. Upon first equipping the pooch, you need to resolve from three banana pores and skin colours (yellow, yellow-green, or mottled), an ear form (pointy, much less pointy, flat) and a physique fashion (slender, or thicc).
After this, every Sidekick additionally comes with its personal mini battle move of beauty add-ons (Peels has an emote the place it dances with maracas, and likewise a few shirt choices it will probably put on that may be outfitted at will). However the creature’s base design selections are certainly now not changeable, leaving gamers who need to attempt different physique choices looking for a separate Peels incarnation to change from the bottom up.
Later this week, on November 7, a collection of further Sidekicks will likely be obtainable individually through the Fortnite in-game store, with upcoming creatures set to embrace extra canine breeds, a dinosaur, and even a Fishstick fish in a bubble. Every will value both 1,200 or 1,500 V-Bucks (round $10-$14), and every is anticipated to provide quite a few everlasting beauty choices followers can have to purchase quite a few variations of to personal all of them.
Amid the backlash to this determination, Epic Video games has despatched a recent consumer survey despatched to Fortnite gamers, together with myself, that particularly asks for suggestions on Sidekicks’ everlasting customization mechanic — providing some followers a glimmer of hope that the entire thing is being reconsidered.
“How do you are feeling in regards to the Sidekicks beauty?” asks one query. “Do you know that Sidekicks have fundamental options that you may solely customise as soon as upon claiming that Sidekick (e.g. its coloration and form?” asks one other. After which:
“How do you are feeling about having to buy an extra copy of the identical Sidekick if you would like to customise your Sidekick with totally different fundamental options?” asks a 3rd question, with numerous choices to reply, from “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
Some followers have urged Epic Video games initially envisaged shopping for Sidekicks to be like adopting a creature from a pet store — with a selected design you bond with over time (and as you unlock their battle move). Others have additionally mentioned that the pricing right here, whereas steep, is little totally different to Fortnite’s additionally widely-disliked Kicks (digital footwear), which regularly value upwards of 1,000 V-Bucks for licensed designs, and usually require gamers to purchase a number of copies to entry totally different colours. (Round a dozen near-identical digital pairs of Crocs exist within the sport, every of which have to be purchased individually.)
However others have in contrast Sidekicks to the extremely customizable nature of many character skins — and certainly, the colour choices obtainable to Fortnite’s more-basic Pets, which launched again in the course of the sport’s earlier years, and might be personalized at will.
Definitely, it feels just like the widespread response to Sidekicks’ design limitations has struck a chord. Removed from a enjoyable new beauty kind — and one that would show vastly profitable, when licensed Sidekicks like Grogu and Sew arrive — launching to constructive sentiment, their soft-launch through Peels has solely stirred up a backlash, with numerous reddit threads and social media posts now encouraging different gamers not to purchase extra once they do go on sale later this week.
Will Epic Video games change course? Time will inform, although solutions to that survey (and the gross sales from this week’s store replace) might play an element.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social