Fortnite developer Epic Games has issued a fresh user survey polling players over its pet-like Sidekicks — and in particular, the need to rebuy each creature to get another version, after your basic design choices are made permanent.
Currently, Fortnite forces fans to lock in their Sidekick’s body color, shape and style upon first use, and warns players that their decision cannot be changed again.
For now, just one Sidekick animal is available — banana dog hybrid Peels, which you get two of within Fortnite’s current The Simpsons battle pass. Upon first equipping the pooch, you must decide from three banana skin colors (yellow, yellow-green, or mottled), an ear shape (pointy, less pointy, flat) and a body style (slender, or thicc).
After this, each Sidekick also comes with its own mini battle pass of cosmetic add-ons (Peels has an emote where it dances with maracas, and also a couple of shirt options it can wear that can be equipped at will). But the creature’s base design choices are indeed no longer changeable, leaving players who want to try other body options seeking a separate Peels incarnation to change from the ground up.
Later this week, on November 7, a selection of additional Sidekicks will be available separately via the Fortnite in-game shop, with upcoming creatures set to include more dog breeds, a dinosaur, and even a Fishstick fish in a bubble. Each will cost either 1,200 or 1,500 V-Bucks (around $10-$14), and each is expected to offer numerous permanent cosmetic options fans will have to buy numerous versions of to own them all.
Amid the backlash to this decision, Epic Games has sent a fresh user survey sent to Fortnite players, including myself, that specifically asks for feedback on Sidekicks’ permanent customization mechanic — offering some fans a glimmer of hope that the whole thing is being reconsidered.
“How do you feel about the Sidekicks cosmetic?” asks one question. “Did you know that Sidekicks have basic features that you can only customize once upon claiming that Sidekick (e.g. its color and shape?” asks another. And then:
“How do you feel about having to purchase an additional copy of the same Sidekick if you want to customize your Sidekick with different basic features?” asks a third query, with various options to reply, from “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
Some fans have suggested Epic Games originally envisaged buying Sidekicks to be like adopting a creature from a pet shop — with a specific design you bond with over time (and as you unlock their battle pass). Others have also said that the pricing here, while steep, is little different to Fortnite’s also widely-disliked Kicks (digital shoes), which often cost upwards of 1,000 V-Bucks for licensed designs, and regularly require players to buy multiple copies to access different colors. (Around a dozen near-identical digital pairs of Crocs exist in the game, each of which must be bought separately.)
But others have compared Sidekicks to the highly customizable nature of many character skins — and indeed, the color options available to Fortnite’s more-basic Pets, which launched back during the game’s earlier years, and can be customized at will.
Certainly, it feels like the widespread response to Sidekicks’ design limitations has struck a chord. Far from a fun new cosmetic type — and one that could prove hugely lucrative, when licensed Sidekicks like Grogu and Stitch arrive — launching to positive sentiment, their soft-launch via Peels has only stirred up a backlash, with various reddit threads and social media posts now encouraging other players not to buy more when they do go on sale later this week.
Will Epic Games change course? Time will tell, though answers to that survey (and the sales from this week’s shop update) may play a part.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
