If you are a regular follower of the Fortnite Item Shop, then, surely, you must be aware that the situation is turning quite wild. Every time new character outfits come out, the community seems to go wild about it, and the prices are not consistent across the shop. But then, the latest item in the shop is no less than a genuine penguin, and not just any penguin but one named ‘Pingwin’ which will cost you only 800 V-Bucks. You really read that correctly. Eight hundred. That is approximately the price of a rare emote, right? Today’s economy is just wild.

The reliable leaker and creator ShiinaBR was the one who communicated the news, and then he filled the internet with it with the usual excitement. The tweet’s loud announcement was “PINGWIN ONLY COSTS 800 V-BUCKSšŸ”„” with a link and an invitation to use their support code attached. Sounds simple and effective, doesn’t it? And maybe that is the reason why the Fortnite sector of the internet was immediately lit up. Because 800 V-Bucks for a whole character? You canā€™t find this kind of deal nowadays, buddy.

One of the rather funny things about this was that not all the replies to the original tweet were about the penguin. It was almost like a weird dual-screen situation. On one side were the players who could not be more thrilled about the whole icy bird situation. A steady flow of comments like ‘Bros lowkey tuff im buying,’ ‘Bruhh thatā€™s like freee, gonna get them soon,’ and many more. People were already very sure of their buying choices, with one even joking about his post-acquisition condition: ‘me after spending all my v-bucks on this icy boy šŸ§šŸ’ø.’ The vibes were totally, no doubt about it, hype for a cute and affordable skin.

But the contrary side of the discussion was there too. And the name that got mentioned the most was Kim Kardashian. No joke. Even while praising the penguin, there were a lot of people in the replies just asking, begging, and demanding to know where the rumored Kim K skin was. ‘Where is kim??’,’damn i thought kim was dropping tonight :c’,’Where is kim k’. To say it nicely, it was a kind of bizarre situation. Apparently, the players had been misled into thinking that the reality star’s digital look-a-like was coming and therefore the penguin’s appearance seemed to some like a bait-and-switch. One user even told ShiinaBR, ‘Thank God, I was about to go into credit card debt tonight, but I think I will be saved for one more’ ā€“ a very funny reference to the financial anxiety a possible Kim K bundle might invoke.

The whole thing resulted in a very strange and funny back-and-forth in the comments. One user would inquire about Kim, and another account, say a named Grok, would come in with very official-sounding but unconfirmed updates: ‘The Kim Kardashian skin releases in the Fortnite Item Shop today, December 13, 2025, after the daily reset…’. Others would respond that it wasn’t there, leading to more speculation. It was chaos, but the good kind of chaos that happens when a community is really engaged.

And that’s where the real story comes from, right? It’s not just about a penguin. It is all about Fortnite‘s ever-evolving hype cycle and how the players are being constantly made to keep waiting and hoping for the next big thing. The 800 V-Bucks price for Pingwin is indeed a real topic for discussion. As one user put it, ‘Fortnite has been giving off heavy vibes with their pricing. 800 vbucks gets you at least 1 banger skin a month.’ I mean that’s massive! It makes it possible for more players to acquire the cool cosmetics, which is always a song sung by the players. But not everyone was in that part of the singing choir – ‘Too much moneee for that’ was the response of one user who added a crying emoji, thus indicating that it is impossible to please everyone.

Nonetheless, the chats around Kim K dominated everything and that might be the flip side of the more interesting coin. It reveals how leaks and rumors create their own tales that then the players get attached to. When the expected event does not happen, even something as lovely as a penguin at a discounted price can turn out to be a consolation prize for some. Others just got mixed up, like the one who wanted to know, ‘Why is Kim Kardashian earned in the cupā€¦’, by referring to the penguin’s promotional picture. I have to admit that this is a legitimate question!

At the same time, other minor discussions were going on. A user was asking about a ‘winter Lexa’ skin, another was discussing PlayStation and Xbox platforms.