Some Fortnite players had both V-Bucks and cosmetics removed from their accounts for seemingly no reason, and Epic Games has at last addressed the matter. Fortnite is free-to-play, but gamers can purchase V-Bucks and exchange them for digital cosmetic goods, which have no effect on gameplay or players' chance to win. These are purely available for aesthetic reasons, allowing players to style their character. This isn't a necessary part of the game, but it is a fundamental element, as most players enjoy adding items to their cosmetic collection.
Recently, several players reported that V-Bucks and cosmetic items had been removed from their accounts. This was often followed up with footage of the notification, which let players know what exactly had been deleted. Players were appalled and immediately demanded answers from Epic Games; some lost thousands of V-Bucks and dozens of cosmetics due to what many thought to be an error. This often happened to Xbox players, which led players to believe that it was an issue with the platform.
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Epic Games Revokes V-Bucks Obtained From Exploits
However, that was not the case at all. Epic Games came forward and made it clear that this was the result of an analysis of backed-up refund requests. According to the official Fortnite Status account on Twitter, there was a problem with the Xbox V-Bucks refund feature between December 2024 and July 2025; during this time, if players refunded V-Bucks, they'd get their money back, but the V-Bucks weren't actually removed from their account. Many decided to exploit this error, and to separate the two, Epic is working to restore previously removed items to those who had gone through this process fewer than seven times during this period.
Skins and other cosmetics were only deleted if a player hit a negative V-Bucks balance to compensate for this value. This issue escalated to the point where they were selling refunded V-Bucks at a cheap price and gifting items to other players. In these situations, gamers who didn't directly ask for a refund but benefited from this error were also affected by this removal.
The V-Bucks balance should've been updated immediately, which is why Epic Games takes blame for this incident. Of course, not everyone exploited it, and some players might not even have noticed that their balance remained the same after requesting a refund in Fortnite. This is exactly why the V-Bucks and cosmetic removals are not being administered to everyone, but only gamers who did it over seven times — at this point, they would've had more than enough opportunity to notice it.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- September 26, 2017
- ESRB
- T for Teen - Diverse Content: Discretion Advised, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Epic Games
- Publisher(s)
- Epic Games
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- 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
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, iOS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- Local Co-Op Support
- 1-4 players (certain modes)
- X|S Optimized
- YES
