Fortnite has made a big announcement for its players, a feline Sidekick, the cat! A virtual cat companion that one can give different looks and even different personalities. The name, ‘Best Cat’, has been assigned to it, which is an assertion bordering on the ridiculous if you asked me. The reaction of the players has been overwhelmingly negative in the comments. The consensus among the gamers is that the features available for customization are extremely limited and the one color that won’t be available is the main reason that people are angry. What were they thinking introducing a cat without at least a proper one in black, huh???
The new Sidekick was introduced in a tweet by FireMonkey together with a link, but the comments turned out to be the story-telling of the whole event. People are really looking forward to the release of the new stuff and there are many comments like ‘when does this release?’ and ‘Release date?’ which all ask the same thing. BRUNEX20A straight out said that they are ‘desperate to have the cats already’ which is really the mood. But the happiness fades out fast turning into dissatisfaction once the confusion regarding customization is revealed.
Moreover, the core issue that makes everyone super mad is that a completely black cat isn’t an option. At all! CrowReaping posed the question, “So I can’t do an all-black cat? Like, the most common among cat colors?” and they are correct. Black cats have a certain mystique! SummaUgh vented his frustration by stating, “so disheartening you can have a fully ginger cat but no jet black cat” and really he is spot on. Many users have commented that the black print is coming across as gray and one of them, Flipsan1ty, said, “the real gray is f-ing BLUE” which just complicates things even more.
The absence of a black cat is not the only limitation in terms of cat color. Goncalo_Sousa__ remarked ‘There are hardly any color options’ and Clippit317 referred to the one-time customization as ‘criminal’. It looks like, considering how much money Epic gets from cosmetics, they should at least provide us with more ways to make our digital pets unique. DougDefinitely also came up with a great idea – they suggested that there be a faster way to display all the options and just have the sidekick in the middle of the available colors instead of making us watch long videos.
On the contrary, there are some rays of sunshine in the form of positive replies that come with the complaints. Catqb91 said, ‘I am so happy this is happening!’ accompanied by love and tongue emojis while UmbranArtsN shared a picture writing ‘I can finally create my Cat!!!’ indicating that some players are figuring out how to deal with what they have. DeathTrip$ was able to see the funny side of the size issue when he said ‘I love that it states chonky on the size’ which is indeed very cute.
The restrictions on customization are effectively illustrating how important personalization is to Fortnite gamers. If you are spending money on cosmetic items, you would certainly want to be able to enforce your own style on them. Not being able to create an all-black cat seems like a massive oversight especially with orange cats getting the full representation. DerekDM2001 admitted that orange might be the best seller but it is still sad that there is no proper black option.
Furthermore, there is a little bit of confusion about the release with condrewt asking if the cats would be ‘coming to the shop tonight?’ but the official account is giving no definite reply. The community has to speculate while simultaneously being let down by the limited color options. It is a rare mix of excitement and feeling down that is becoming quite common with battle royale releases lately.
Besides that, how long the showcase videos are getting is another issue that we have to talk about? Squadra_Prince brought it up, ‘Bro he showed styles for 8 Minutes THATS great man’ which is like… eight minutes? For cat colors? That is a very high level of commitment but it would be better to just show us a color wheel, wouldn’t it?
The whole situation reminds me of some other Fortnite cosmetics that were very limited in terms of customization when they first came out. Players always want to have more control over their assets, especially when they are paying extra for them. The fact that you cannot make a simple black cat – a basic feature – is just ridiculous. crushngrind stated it nicely: ‘can’t do a full void kitty mannnn’ an extra n is for emphasis because the disappointment is really felt.
Despite this, some people are trying to make the most out of the situation. In the comments, there’s a really vivid discussion about which colors are available, with cegaliii saying ‘pode deixar laranja’ which can be translated to ‘you can leave it orange’ and implies that some PlayStation and Xbox players are finding ways to enjoy the available options.
