Fortnite has been experiencing a renaissance lately, with the OG map drawing back a staggering 45 million players in a single day. However, that love streak seems set to end as Epic Games has unveiled a controversial new age-gating system. This system restricts cosmetics and even islands for minors, causing consternation among the game's massive, youthful community.
On the Fortnite blog, Epic announced the move, which will label player-created Fortnite islands (or experiences) with a specific rating, as well as each individual cosmetic item. Players attempting to use incompatible cosmetics will have them automatically replaced with default gear, causing consternation among those fans who paid for the privilege of wearing the piece with real money in the first place. According to Epic, this move is designed to "help parents and players make informed play decisions about the thousands of games and other experiences in Fortnite."
It's worth noting that Battle Royale and Zero Build, by far the game's most popular islands or experiences, are rated T for Teen, thus unaffected by cosmetic restrictions. Still, we could understand being irked by having paid for cosmetic gear and not being able to use it while exploring user-generated content.