Mediatonic together with Epic Games has only recently issued a small gift to the community of Fall Guys who are putting up with the wintery outside atmosphere. “Fashionably Frosty”, an additional free costume, is now available for claiming at the Epic Games Store. But, the only way to acquire it is up to January 8th, otherwise, you will be missing out on this fun-looking, scarf-wrapped character. A free costume that turns your bean into a winter companion is not a bad idea at least, but if you take the responses to the tweet into consideration, then the community’s reaction appears to be quite a lot… frostbitten.
The official Fall Guys account announced with a warm scarf emoji that “It’s freezing outside, here’s a new costume for you to wear.” Some players did indeed thank the game. One of them, Dreyg04, wrote: “Thank you! 🤩 🥶” and another one, CoolT35, praised the combination of blue and pink calling it wonderful. Still, in the end, all free stuff is still considered things, right? However, the further and deeper you go into the comments, the more you come across the angry voices among the people. It is as if the free skin has become one ice cube dropped in a volcano full of player disappointments.
A good number of the comments are not even mentioning the skin topic. They are a loud and persistent group of players that demand changes, fixes, and a clear road map of the game’s future. It is impossible for them not to be noticed. User SuperFallGuyBR wrote a list of his requests: “Make Xtreme mode permanent… Make REAL Ranked mode… ADD new items every week… AND MAYBE, I SAID MAYBE, the game has a future.” Oof. That is not just feedback; that is a prayer.
And it is only one guy. Another player going by the name of dan told the developers that “it wouldn’t hurt to do a little bit of a change to the rounds they have brought back.” HPhoenix was even more straightforward, stating, “Let me know when something new happens to the game and I will re-install it. Thanks for the free skin though!” The reply reflects a feeling that a free cosmetic is not a sufficient reason for the players who have left to come back. FanofBulbasaur simply said, “Anything but cosmetics would be great.” You catch the drift.
Moreover, there is this entire other… thing going on in the replies. A number of players are repeating the same demand while tagging the Fall Guys account with videos and messages all saying some variation of “We still have to address him” or “Address me.” It has turned into a meme, a persistent in-joke-turned-protest about wanting the developers to recognize specific community grievances. It got a bit meta with users like Doge Master and JoannaMcke10961 debating if tagging the social media manager actually does anything. Doge Master stated he would not stop bothering them “until they acknowledge the situation we are in,” adding “Every time they tweet & ignore it gets worse lol.” It is a whole layer of community interaction that is both humorous and desperate at the same time.
Oh, and some technical issues arose quickly too. Following the announcement, Sophieee_Louuu straightaway asked, “I am unable to log in to the game… Is there an issue with the servers?” with players from Germany and other regions confirming they were also having trouble finding a match. It does not generate a good impression when you are giving away freebies to get players to log in your game. Some players, like BravePlayys, referred to the notorious legacy skin wipe, saying, “All my skins are gone.” And then of course, there are spontaneous calls for old costumes to come back like having football mode for an achievement or the Miku collaboration.
So, what is this all about? Fall Guys is giving away a free winter skin, which is a lovely gesture, but the players’ base seems to be letting off steam through the announcement of their concerns that are much bigger than just the skin. The title turned into a free-to-play experience, was purchased by Epic, and a massive user growth was the resulting effect. Nonetheless, some of the loyal community feel that the core gameplay is no longer stretched. They crave new rounds, permanent competitive modes, improved store rotations and above all, communication. For them, the ‘Fashionably Frosty’ costume, even though cool, is still a distraction – putting a new scarf on a bean that still bounces around the same old map.
This is one of the typical problems a live-service game faces. The cosmetic pipeline has to be kept flowing to make money but at the same time the actual game has to be kept fresh to attract and retain players. Currently, the replies suggest that there is a disconnect between the two sides. Players are saying the developers at Mediatonic need to focus on core updates, while the community on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox continues to voice its frustrations.
