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"Absolutely outrageous": Epic steps in it by removing Fortnite's cosmetic rarity system and immediately selling skins deemed overpriced by angry players
09.04.2024 - 18:39 / gamesradar.com / Leon Kennedy / Catherine Lewis
A huge new change just landed in Fortnite today, and very few players seem happy about it. Color-coded cosmetic rarities are now a thing of the past, meaning there's no more obvious separation between a Rare skin and a Legendary one, and fans are worried what this means for the future of skin prices.
In case you were unfamiliar, up until today, most cosmetics were labeled in the item shop and Locker using the same rarity system as the weapons found in the Battle Royale mode, with green-tagged Uncommon skins, blue Rare ones, and so on. While they're no stronger to use in the game, generally speaking, the higher a cosmetic's 'rarity', the fancier it looks, and they usually have a price to reflect that, too. Today, however, Epic Games announced that this system is being retired. Now, the only cosmetics labeled with different colors are those found in special Series categories such as the Gaming Legends, like Leon Kennedy and Kratos.
"The Shop has evolved significantly to support multiple types of cosmetics and items across games, so we’re retiring the old Battle Royale-inspired system of colors and tags for cosmetic quality," Epic Games explains in a blog post. "Different Series of cosmetics – such as the Icon Series or Gaming Legends Series – will still be there to help you find your favorite stuff!"
But what does this actually mean? In one sense, it can be considered a good thing – the rarity of a skin really doesn't mean much if you like a design, and the change essentially encourages people to use their favorites and decide for themselves what they consider to be their personal Legendary skins.
To add onto Cosmetic rarities being hidden, it appears that even in the Item Shop the only cosmetics with visible rarities are those apart of stuff like the Icon Series.Normal rarities appear to just be fully hidden everywhere pic.twitter.com/5GIEpxluWRApril 9, 2024
However, aside from the fact that players' cosmetic Lockers are now harder to navigate at a glance, the main concern that's being aired is whether this could signify an increase to cosmetic prices going forward. With no rarity system to indicate a pricing guideline, players are wondering if we could see skins previously presented as Uncommon or Rare outfits priced much higher than you'd expect.
"This is sickening. Genuinely disheartening to see them do this, because you KNOW that means they can do whatever they want with the prices because we'll never see the rarity," one player speculates.
"For some reason I can't help but feel overhauling the rarity system means also overhauling the pricing system just so any skin can be expensive for no reason," another suggests.
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