Epic Games has put out statement on Twitter acknowledging the player backlash to their latest update, which has added an age rating system to existing cosmetics that prohibits some of them from being used in certain Creative islands.
The statement from the Fortnite Twitter account states that “our plan for cosmetics with the rating update didn’t hit the mark. We’re working on a few new options that we hope to have in place for say… some sort of big in-game event.”
The update, which also added the ability to record and report audio, has added age ratings to islands which have been made by players in the Creative mode. According to a blog post from the Fortnite Team, this change was made to “help parents and players make informed play decisions about the thousands of games and other experiences in Fortnite.”
With this update, each of the thousands of cosmetic items was given an age rating, around 7% of which are incompatible with games rated E or E10+. If a player joins an E-rated island with an Outfit or other cosmetic that is above the rating threshold, it will be swapped out for a cosmetic that is compatible.
While Epic Games planned to update most Outfits to auto-adjust to be age-appropriate over the next year, they were still met with significant player backlash. As the game encourages purchasing different cosmetic options, to have a portion of them become unusable for parts of the game has many players frustrated. Some also feel that the guidelines are inconsistent, with many in the Fortnite subreddit calling out contradictory ratings for different Outfits.
Despite the lack of clarity on what the new system will be going forward, it does appear that the team at Epic Games have listened to the criticism and are reversing their course on the subject.