Epic distances itself from Travis Scott
The popular hip-hop artist was one of the first to hold a live-event virtual performance in Epic’s battle royale title, Fortnite. The nine-minute concert, which was held in 2020, netted Scott around $20 million including merchandise. To date, there are still several other merchandises available in Fortnite for sale that’s related to Scott. This includes the “Out West” music emote, which features a sample of licensed music from Travis Scott and Jackboys. However, Epic has just decided to pull out the aforementioned emote. Fortnite’s support account on Twitter acknowledged the removal but did not explain the reason behind it.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) November 8, 2021 Scott’s annual Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, opened last Friday night and resulted in the deaths of eight people as well as the injury of 300 others. Several sources claim that people without tickets had managed to breach an entrance to the concert. This resulted in dangerous levels of overcrowding that ultimately led to the tragic event that shocked the world over the weekend. It is possible that the removal of the “Out West” emote from the Fortnite item shop is not related to the recent mishap. Epic usually programs each day’s line-up days in advance and might have planned to remove the “Out West” emote just in time for Astroworld to end this year, and some maybe the removal coincided with the events that transpired over the weekend. Either way, Fortnite players appear happy to know that the shop is no longer selling Scott’s emote. However, existing owners can still use the emote and the Travis Scott character skin inside the game. It will be interesting to see if Epic will remove everything related to Travis Scott in Fortnite. We can imagine that this will come with some pushback, especially from owners who’d already paid for the in-game cosmetics.
