Fortnite Reimburses Players for Reviving Pickaxe Skin
Fortnite is about to reimburse players for a mistake with its latest shop update. During the shop rotation for Thursday night, October 3, 2024, Epic Games accidentally added the Bow Blades pickaxe to the shop. The item has not been seen in a long time and was intended to be an exclusive item for the Chapter 3 Season 3 Fortnite Champions Series finals.
A collector's item suddenly becoming available to anyone with a credit card or a V-Bucks balance is a gaff games like Fortnite generally try to avoid.
Fortnite developers responded quickly to the mistake and removed the Bow Blades from the shop. However, the company has chosen not to remove them from the inventory of players who made the purchase.
According to an official statement:
Due to an issue, we unintentionally brought the ‘Bow Blades Pickaxe back into the shop and have since removed it.
- Fortnite on Twitter
If you purchased the ‘Bow Blades during this evening's rotation, you can keep this Pickaxe and we'll refund your V-Bucks soon-ish.
Due to an issue, we unintentionally brought the ‘Bow Blades Pickaxe back into the shop and have since removed it.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) October 4, 2024
If you purchased the ‘Bow Blades during this evening's rotation, you can keep this Pickaxe and we'll refund your V-Bucks soon-ish.
We plan to create a new variant…
The statement adds that Fortnite devs intend to create a new variant of the pickaxe for collectors who owned the pickaxe when it was first available. Any of those owners who soured on the item with this error will also have the option to refund it.
This is not the first time the Fortnite shop has accidentally revived an exclusive item. In August, the shop suddenly included the Paradigm outfit for a short time before it was quickly removed. Epic ultimately responded the same way it has to the Bow Blades issue, though players have yet to see a variant for The Paradigm hit their inventory.
Due to a bug, we unintentionally brought Paradigm back into the Shop and have since removed it.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) August 7, 2024
Within the week we’ll be removing Paradigm from recent purchaser’s Lockers and refunding the purchase as this was a limited time exclusive Outfit during Chapter 1 Season X. pic.twitter.com/XgmBlMQyY1
Some players are naturally upset by the repeated issue, but others are hoping that it becomes a common occurence so that players can acquire exclusive items for free.
they should do this for every single exclusive item idc https://t.co/Cc8fEQdEac
— Lix 🎃 he/him (@Lix_wan_Kenobi) October 4, 2024
Trent has covered esports since the birth of the LCS. He also led content strategy and served as Senior Writer for The Esports Observer and Sports Business Journal, and worked on the development team for Rushdown Revolt.