Skins in Fortnite are a huge deal, both commercially and cosmetically. They help keep the game afloat by providing Epic Games with daily revenue. Some skins, such as Ninja's Icon Series, helped the streamer earn $5 million in one month via his support-a-creator code.
Given these numbers, it's easy to see why they are such a huge deal for the developers. Due to this reason, they have been making improvements to a lot of skins in-game.
Aside from improvements, they've also decided to bring back some OG Fortnite skins as re-skins. While this shouldn't be a pressing issue, the problem is that these re-skins are based off limited edition Battle Pass skins.
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Epic Games versus the Fortnite community: To re-skin or not to re-skin, revenue is the answer
For the average Fortnite enthusiast, this whole reskin debate may not seem like much, but there's a lot at play here. To put things into perspective, some backstory will be needed.
It's time to travel back in time all the way to Chapter 1 Season 4. The Battle Pass at the time was one of the most hyped in-game due to the Omega skin. These cosmetics were exclusive to the Battle Pass and limited to the season.
However, what made it truly memorable and at the same time frustrating was that players had to level up to unlock different stages of the skin. This was a monumental task in itself.
Fast forward to 2022, in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2, a reskin of Omega called Omega Knight was introduced to the game. Since the OG skin was supposed to be limited and exclusive, having a reskin does not bod well with many players who own the original cosmetic.
Why is this a problem?
To start with, the new reskin not only looks the same but also has the same naming scheme as Omega. In fact, the skins are so similar that if the armor pieces from Omega Knight were stripped off, it would look much like the original Omega skin.
To make matters worse, Battle Pass cosmetics are limited. If a player misses out on them, there's no way to get them again. This makes certain cosmetics in Fortnite extremely rare. Since Omega was introduced in Chapter 1, it is placed high on the rarity scale.
With Epic Games using it to leverage sales and push the Omega Knight skin to more and more players, Loopers from days gone by are not happy. This once limited edition skin is now accessible to everyone in the form of a reskin. Here's what a few users had to say about the unraveling fiasco:
While it is logical to sympathize with OG players who feel robbed of owning an exclusive skin, Epic Games did stay true to their word. While the reskin may follow the naming scheme and look very similar, it's still not the original skin.
Based on this technicality, the developers are well within their rights to sell the Omega Knight cosmetic. While a lot of players may feel bad, there's honestly nothing that can be done.
On the other side of this whole argument, newer players can now own Omega in his new avatar. With armor plating and a giant sword as a harvesting tool, he's absolutely terrifying to look at in-game.