Summary

  • The Go Home! Emote incident resulted in compensation for original and new owners.
  • Exclusive items returning to the Item Shop lead to backlash from players wanting them to remain rare.
  • Epic Games is giving original owners the Spectatin' emote for free, and new owners can keep the emote and will also get their 100 V-Bucks back.

After accidentally putting the Go Home! Emote in the Item Shop, Epic Games has tried to make it up to the Fortnite community by giving players free items or V-Bucks based on when they got the emote. There are various ways to determine how exclusive a cosmetic is in Fortnite, and the criteria have shifted greatly over the years. Some fans care about how exclusive an item is or might be in the future. This has led to controversy and backlash when certain items return to the game after some time.

Epic Games has made mistakes in the past and brought back cosmetics that fans thought would never be made available again. An incident that was particularly controversial was when it brought back Rogue Agent as an Item Shop cosmetic, even though it was initially sold as a Starter Pack back in Chapter 1 Season 3. However, this is just an example among several, as Fortnite has seen multiple exclusive cosmetics return to the Item Shop when they were expected not to be for sale again.

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Recently, the Go Home! Emote was added to the Item Shop when it refreshed on May 4, 2025. Even though it was removed within a few hours, hundreds of players purchased it, as it was only 100 V-Bucks, and many were also aware of its rarity. The players who had bought it when it was first available in the shop back in 2019 were appalled that the emote in their locker suddenly wasn't rare anymore. Epic Games promised to find a way to make it right for everyone involved in the situation, and it has finally come up with a solution: original owners will receive the Spectatin' emote for free, and new owners will get to keep the emote and will also get their 100 V-Bucks back.

Who Will Get V-Bucks for the Go Home! Emote in Fortnite?

  • New owners only

The Go Home! Emote was originally released 2,032 days prior to its reappearance, and it was only available the following three days. It was added to Fortnite as part of a Chapter 1 Season X event alongside The Paradigm skin. Both items were promoted as limited-time cosmetics, supposedly only available for a few days. Unfortunately, Epic Games was unlucky when it came to both the Go Home! Emote and The Paradigm, as both made it onto the Item Shop again due to a mistake. During the summer of 2024, The Paradigm was accidentally released in the shop, just like the emote in its set.

Epic Games has dealt with a lot of complaints regarding exclusive items. Some gamers who have exclusive items don't want to give them up to newcomers, and players who missed out on exclusive items don't want to feel like they'll never have the chance to get them in the future, especially regarding collab skins and cosmetics, as it may lock them out of obtaining their favorite characters in Fortnite. Therefore, nowadays, event and Battle Pass cosmetics are no longer exclusive at all unless Epic confirms otherwise.

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Fortnite
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Survival
Battle Royale
Shooter
Action
Adventure
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Released
September 26, 2017
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DIGITAL
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ESRB
T for Teen - Diverse Content: Discretion Advised, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s)
Epic Games
Publisher(s)
Epic Games
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play
All platforms (except iOS/Mac)
Cross Save
Via Epic Account
Number of Players
1-4 players (online)
PC Release Date
September 26, 2017
Xbox Series X|S Release Date
November 10, 2020
PS5 Release Date
November 12, 2020
Nintendo Switch Release Date
June 12, 2018
Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
June 5, 2025
Genre(s)
Survival, Battle Royale, Shooter, Action, Adventure
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
Local Co-Op Support
1-4 players (certain modes)
X|S Optimized
YES