Fortnite angers players by allowing you to use emotes without even owning them
Fortnitedropped a sneaky update that lets you borrow emotes for free – yes, even the expensive ones.
For over a decade, Fortnite’s emote economy has been a strange blend of nostalgia, flex culture, and overpriced animations. Emotes like Fresh and Floss became digital status symbols, locked behind oldBattle Passesor rare shop rotations. Players have shelled out V-Bucks for years to lock down the right moves.
Naturally, when Epic quietly dropped a feature that lets you copy emotes you don’t own, players noticed – fast.
Fortnite lets you use almost every dancing emote for free now
The new “Emote Together” option lets you walk up to another player dancing, press a button (E on PC), and boom – you’re doing the same emote. No purchase needed.
Epic explained it in theFortnite Festival Season 8 patch notes, buried undernewsaboutSabrina Carpenter. “Most Fortnite Emotes that include dancing will be called ‘Dance Emotes’… Any player can do the same dance with you at the press of a button (Even if they don’t own the Emote!)”
Fortnite already hadSynced Emotes– those duo-style moves like Bear Hug and Double Up, but they were meant for two. Now you can just catch someone mid-dance before a battle royale match and hop in. No ownership needed.
Theplayer reactionis pretty negative. One wrote, “Gimme a refund for all my emotes like wtf is this sh*t.” Another asked, “only friends? or everyone’s? because I think I prefer it to be only my friends” Despite the comments, it’s everyone’s. Even that enemy you’re seconds away from pickaxing.
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There’s also backlash about automatic syncing and audio bugs. As one player put it: “I strongly dislike this update. Not only does it have the group emote effect, where nobody else can hear any emote in 100m. But also syncing emotes is now officially dead since it does it automatically.”
With Fortnite’s economy in flux – and anAdventure TimeandStar Wars eventrunning – emote ownership might not matter anymore.
