Fortnite’s new age-restricted skin and cosmetics are really bizarre

If you log into your Fortnite locker today, you may see a whole bunch of skins A big “warning” sign was placed on them, This is part of a new, recently implemented system that age-restricts certain cosmetics that can only be used in 10+ Creative maps.

Which skin is being affected by this? And why? Going through the skins, there is a common thread between almost all of them. Any skin that naturally has some type of gun attached, usually something like a pistol in a holster, is prohibited.

In my own collection, which includes Lara Croft, Black Widow, Cable, Domino, Doctor Doom, Sergeant Jonesy, Bandolet, Doublecross, and Agent Peele, a banana with a gun on its ankle holster. Bandolet and Sgt. Jonesy literally only has ammo clips.

But wait! And there’s more, because this applies to all cosmetics, not just skin. I can’t use the buzz saw blades that came with my Borderlands Psycho. Then, I have the knives from The Walking Dead and Daryl from “Dive Knives.” These two are literally just… two knives, but sickles, swords, and axes are obviously fine.

Then again, sometimes it seems like things are deemed “too scary.” My Bobo the Monkey back bling has been banned. A spray that makes Midas look a little dangerous has been banned. This all seems very arbitrary.

There doesn’t appear to be any components that take into account the source material of the skin. R-rated and MA-rated are skins from movies, TV shows or video games that aren’t banned because they don’t have guns or aren’t scary enough. Uh, there doesn’t even seem to be some kind of “too sexy” filter based on how much skin is shown. For example, the famous curvy Chun-Li does not have any skin restrictions either.

The idea here is that there’s a part of Fortnite creative that Epic wants to make “just for kids” and that doesn’t even include things with pistols or ammo clips. Or things that might be a little scary. Of course, this is a game in which 50% of the entire thing is a battle royale where players take on each other with every weapon under the sun, a mode that will almost certainly be enjoyed by children aged 10 and under. Played extensively, despite the T for Teen rating. One has to wonder if this is some kind of ESRB demand that Epic is pursuing.

The end result is that it means you have to really check which skin you’re going to buy (with your parents’ money) if you can’t use it across a bunch of maps. Epic has been full of weird decisions lately, and this is another decision that feels like a really weird thing to implement based on the arbitrary criteria used here.

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