Sadly, controversy within the gaming space is nothing new. Ironically, there’s been loads of controversy just within the last few months between certain gaming decisions by companies like EA, Xbox, Sony, etc., and that’s not even including the layoffs, company shutdowns, and more that have seriously hurt the industry. Yet, sometimes, a controversial decision can be something as simple as putting in a new asset for a game that causes everyone to raise their eyebrows in shock. That’s exactly what happened recently when Epic Games made the decision to bring the Cybertruck into Fortnite. The backlash was immediate, and now, it’s growing via people in the company!
To recap, the game has been going through the “Wrecked” season, which has brought numerous vehicles into the mix to try and shake things up and provide a new kind of gameplay element to the title. It hasn’t been the most popular of choices, but the phrase “A For Effort” definitely applies, as Epic Games was trying something new with the title, and that’s what matters. Or, at least, it would’ve mattered had they “stayed the course.”
However, they soon revealed that the Tesla Cybertruck was coming to the game and did a big “hype trailer” for it, only to be met with immediate backlash from players for numerous and justified reasons. Epic Games could’ve just ignored them, but now, some people within Epic Games who worked on Fortniteare calling out the decisions made by the higher ups.
For example, the man behind the UI art for the collaboration straight-up blasted that Epic Games was working with Tesla and Elon Musk:
Then, the man behind the “Fortnite Festival” spoke out on this, encouraging people not to pay for this content, as it’s the one way to truly make Epic Games see how they feel:
Still not enough for you? Well, how about the game’s executive producer? While he did note that his “opinions are his own,” he made his opinion pretty loud and clear:
As you can imagine, the comments section is full of people either laughing at the situation as a whole, blasting the Cybertruck and Elon Musk, or calling out these people for “whining” about it on Elon Musk’s own platform.
However, don’t miss the forest through the trees. No matter where you stand on this issue, the inclusion of the Cybertruck is highly controversial, and this proves it. What will Epic Games do now that its own people are revolting over this decision? We’ll have to wait and see.
