At long last, Fortnite has added Sidekicks – adorable pets – to the battle royale, but bad news; they're expensive, with price tags made even worse by customization restrictions that ask players to buy multiple of the same companions if they want their ears to be slightly different.
Fortnite Sidekicks have been a mixed bag, to say the least. The idea of a little dog following you around as you play in the battle royale and Lego mode is cute – hell, you can pet them and watch them dance. But many players are seriously unhappy with the fact that although you can customize their physical traits, such as their ears, size, and color, you can only do so once – your choice is permanent, and if you want a "chonky" dog after already choosing a regular build, then you're going to have to buy another one. That's not fun, especially when the first wave of Sidekicks are set to range between 1,200 and 1,500 V-Bucks, costing more than some character skins.
"I know they're cute. I know they're fun. I know we have all been looking forward to them. But the greed on display is disgusting and should not be rewarded," one player on Reddit writes, urging fellow fans not to spend their precious V-Bucks.
"Vote with your money. In the past this has worked. Car prices were cut in half due to backlash. If enough of us are vocal they WILL LISTEN," they continue.
Others have been sharing the same opinion on Twitter. "Please Fortnite, you gotta listen to the community here, these Sidekicks are an awesome idea, but the way they're being handled isn't right," one writes. "Most people don't want to/can't really afford to buy the same cosmetic twice or more, especially nowadays."
"The sidekicks feature in Fortnite is genuinely pretty fun and I actually like it, but man I just cannot get behind the absurd pricing scheme and 'buy it again if you want to change how it looks!' gimmick especially since they are like $15 each," says another.
There's already a potential glimmer of hope, though, as some fans have reported being sent a survey asking them for their opinion on the one-time customization restrictions. We'll just have to wait and see if Epic Games will act on this – after all, the current Battle Pass already gives players two copies of the cute banana dog Peels, so the devs went all in on the dupe idea straight away, but they're clearly aware of the negative feedback, too.
