Fortnite devs U-turn after accidentally bringing back an exclusive skin after almost 5 years, quickly removing it, and threatening to take it from those who bought it: "Change of plan!"

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If you managed to grab The Paradigm in time, "you can keep her!"

The Paradigm skin in Fortnite.
(Image credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite developer Epic Games has backtracked after accidentally bringing back a limited-time exclusive skin almost five years after its release and threatening to take it from new purchasers.

The skin in question is The Paradigm – a skin that was originally available for just three days in October 2019. At the time, it was advertised as an "exclusive" item that would only be "available for a limited time," but lo and behold, those who saw Fortnite's Item Shop refresh with new goodies overnight were in for a surprise, as The Paradigm was inexplicably back, giving players another chance to add her to their Lockers if they weren't able to before.

Alas, it wasn't long before Epic Games stepped in to shut this down, removing her from the Shop and releasing a statement to explain that the skin had been brought back "due to a bug," so it definitely wasn't intentional. To make matters worse, the developers planned to outright remove the skin from new purchasers' Lockers "within the week," refunding the V-Bucks they spent at the same time.  

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As you'd expect, this didn't go down well, with players calling the move "kinda wrong," and saying it's effectively "punishing new players." It also revived the everlasting debate over whether Fortnite should even have 'exclusive' items in the first place. There are loads of old Battle Pass-exclusives like Spider-Man and Geralt of Rivia that newer players simply can't own because of the way they were distributed. While not quite in the same boat, there are also cosmetics that just haven't been brought back to the Item Shop in forever, like the Kratos skin that was last seen in 2021. His existence certainly makes my personal regret of missing out on Leon Kennedy last year seem way less important.

Anyway, less than two hours later, Epic Games clearly got the message, as it announced a U-turn: "Change of plan! Bought The Paradigm tonight? You can keep her!" 

Those who bought The Paradigm are now getting the best of both worlds as they'll still be refunded their V-Bucks while being able to hold onto the elusive skin. On top of that, anyone who bought her in 2019 will be given the option to refund the skin, but if they keep it, they'll eventually be given a new, exclusive variant. Clearly, the devs aren't stopping with those exclusive cosmetics any time soon, then. 

All in all, this is probably the best-case scenario other than The Paradigm being outright available for everyone. There's no doubt some are going to be annoyed that they missed their brief chance to get her overnight, though.

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Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.