Epic disables Fortnite shop section featuring Travis Scott dance emote

Epic temporarily disabled the “Daily” section of Fortnite‘s in-game item shop just hours after it was updated Sunday with an “Out West” emote featuring Travis Scott. The move comes after the tragic events at Houston’s Astroworld concert last Friday, where at least eight people died and 25 were hospitalized during Scott’s performance.

Fortnite confirmed that the move was “intentional” in a Twitter update Sunday night but made no mention of Scott or the specific motivation for the decision. An Epic representative was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

The emote in question plays a clip from the song “Out West” by Scott and Jackboys alongside a dance based on a viral TikTok sensation set to the same song. It first appeared in the game in August 2020 and has been regularly available for 500 V-Bucks (roughly $3 to $4) at least once a month ever since. Players who have previously purchased the emote can still use it in the game, alongside a Travis Scott skin that was available for purchase in April 2020.

Discussions on Reddit and various Fortnite item trackers show that the emote was briefly available once again Sunday night before the Daily section was taken down entirely. By Monday night, the Daily section had returned with a completely new set of in-game items for purchase.

Scott has been tied to Fortnite since last April, when he performed a virtual in-game concert that attracted over 27 million attendees, including 12.3 million who were watching concurrently at one point. These kinds of concerts have been key to Fortnite‘s efforts to expand beyond its shooting game core to become the center of Epic’s own metaverse plans.
Epic has previously faced controversy and lawsuits for creating Fortnite emotes out of dances created by outside artists without providing credit or compensation. https://arstechnica.com/?p=1811496