‘Fortnite’ Season 6 patch removes breast animation for Calamity outfit

Fortnite’s cowgirl outfit,
Calamity, is getting the wrong kind of
attention.
Fortnite/”Epic
Games”

• After “Fortnite” Season 6 rolled out Thursday, players
  noticed that Calamity — a new “Fortnite” outfit — featured
  sexualized breast animations.
• The game’s developer, Epic Games, said the animation was
  unintended and pushed out a patch to correct it in less than 24
  hours.
• “Fortnite” is a free game with a massive audience of young
  players. Epic likely wants to avoid upsetting parents with sexual
  content.

Just a day after launching the Season 6 update
for “Fortnite,” Epic Games has rolled out a patch to correct a
sexualized animation. 

Shortly after the release of the Season 6 update, players noticed
that one of the game’s new legendary costumes, Calamity, had an
animation that would make her breasts bounce suggestively:

The Calamity outfit has multiple iterations with different
clothing, but only the base tank top outfit displays the
animation. The dancing animation can be done on command, making
it a ripe target for trolling players.

In a statement to The Verge, an
Epic Games spokesperson called the animation
“embarrassing.” 

“This is unintended, embarrassing, and it was careless for
us to let this ship. We are working now to fix this as soon as
possible,” the statement said.

Toeing the family-friendly line

Video game developers have received waves of criticism for
unrealistic portrayals of women’s bodies, which range from
impossible anatomy to outright disrespectful clothing choices.
While some companies have chosen to focus on more positive
representations of women, others have historically chosen to lean
on the gross sex appeal.

“Street Fighter V,” for example, came under fire when a glitch
caused female characters’ breasts to move before each match:

As a free game that makes most of its money from selling cosmetic
changes, “Fortnite” has a vested interest in making character
models appealing to players.

However, “Fortnite” also has a huge audience of young players,
and could risk alienating families by including sexual content.
So far, the game has successfully toed the family-friendly line
by injecting large doses humor alongside the gun-wielding
gameplay.

With today’s patch, the animation has been wiped from the game.
But Epic will need to start keeping better track of the content
that rolls out the door.