Fortnite Fans Are at War Over a Controversial Streamer's Inclusion, and the Toxic Backlash It's Created
As Fortnite's latest season wraps up, its community isn't focused on whether The Ice King or the Foundation will win its current conflict. Instead, players are engaged in a heated debate over a collaboration with a controversial streamer in the battle royale game's next season — as revealed in a new piece of artwork. An image that appears to show the Fortnite startup screen for Chapter 7: Season 3 has revealed an in-game creature seemingly inspired by TheBurntPeanut, a streamer accused of using homophobic language online.
Initial reaction to TheBurntPeanut apparently being a part of Fortnite's next season was strongly negative among fans. Links to clips of him allegedly using the F-slur, and laughing at a fellow player who appears to begin saying the N-word, sparked outrage. "I just don't understand man, it's really not that hard to do background checks, Epic Games is literally allergic to them for no reason," wrote Blortzen, a prominent Fortnite fan on X/Twitter.
Other players pointed to the unfortunate timing of the reveal, at the beginning of a month associated with Pride. Amid some initial confusion over who the character was meant to be inspired by, Fortnite's senior director "EpicTofu" Chris confirmed it was indeed designed to be a TheBurntPeanut collaboration — something that then prompted hundreds of negative responses to his post.
A Toxic Backlash and Developer Response
Fortnite has long struggled to fully engage with its enormous online fandom. However, Chris and other developers have in recent months attempted to be more communicative with players via social media — even if this typically prompts a never-ending list of demands from the game's particularly vocal fanbase whenever they post.
Hours after confirming TheBurntPeanut's collaboration, an alleged screenshot then surfaced from a private group chat where an account that appears to be Chris stated that they were now planning to take a break from communication, as the online toxicity had begun impacting his personal life. This then led to a backlash towards the initial backlash, with fans calling out some of the language directed at Chris, who had appeared to be unaware of the streamer's past.
"You guys bullied one of the people who brought STRONG communication to this game all because you have no brain power to realize he is not responsible for every single little thing added to this game," Blortzen wrote in a later post. "Genuinely pathetic behaviour from all of you who harassed him."
"So many devs were active on here ever since this chapter dropped, showing genuine excitement for upcoming seasons, the Ice King & Foundation rivalry, the Community Day, and they even played Fortnite with the community," agreed high profile Fortnite leaker Shiina. "But it only takes 1(!) collab that the usual negativity spreaders do not like for them to harass the devs to the point where they no longer feel comfortable spending their time on this platform... disappointed but honestly not even surprised. I don't need this collab either, but it would never cross my mind to harass the developers because of this."
What's Next for Fortnite?
Chapter 7: Season 3 is scheduled to kick off this Saturday, June 6, following a climactic live event the day before. This event will see the conflict between Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Foundation and the Ice King reach its conclusion, with players' experiences in the showdown set to differ depending on which side they picked this season.
Fortnite will then return online following downtime with its next season, named Runners, which will see the return of creatures that look to be new versions of the game's previous Sprites. These critters could be found across the battle royale Island and offered power-ups or special abilities, and could be carried around — the suggestion is that the game's new TheBurntPeanut variant, one of many additional varieties, will act in the same way.
Fortnite fans are divided on this issue, with some calling for Epic Games to take a stand on the matter and others defending the right of developers to collaborate with any content creators they choose. As the game moves forward with its latest update, the community will be watching closely to see how the situation unfolds.
