Fortnite's controversial 'pay-to-win' skins are about to change

Not too long ago, Epic released the 'Boundless Set' in Fortnite, one featuring superhero skins. When you switch to one of these skins, you can choose both a primary and a secondary color — including the same colors, which meant you could have an all-white or all-black character. That's where the problem comes in.

The all-black superhero skin resulted in — you guessed it — a character that was solid black. This, some players said, was an unfair advantage because it is very difficult to see these skins in shadows and other dark areas. As a result, some criticized the skins as 'pay-to-win' and called for them to be removed.

Epic said a couple of weeks ago that it would look into the matter, and now we finally know what the company will do: remove the ability to use all-black and all-white color schemes with these superhero skins. The change was detailed on the Fortnite Trello board, where Epic says:

It was brought to our attention that Outfits in the Boundless Set included color combinations that could compromise the competitive integrity of matches. As a result, we're planning to make minor cosmetic adjustments in our next update. We've made some adjustments to the materials, and you will no longer be able to have white/white or black/black color combinations when selecting your primary and secondary colors.

As you'd expect, Epic is offering players who purchased these skins the option to request a refund within 30 days of their login once the 15.30 update arrives — this applies even to players who don't have any refund tokens left. The company says that it has also tweaked shadows in the game as part of this update.