ONE Fortnite Emojis with music by Travis Scott appear to have been removed from sale, following a tragedy at the rapper’s Astroworld festival on Saturday that left eight people dead. The emoji appears in the item shop’s daily selection on Sunday, then shortly after Epic shuts down that section entirely. While they haven’t explained why, the cause seems obvious.
Epic used the “Out West” emoji, which played a sample track from the Travis Scott song of the same name, although they didn’t provide a reason why. Based on players on Reddit, emoji were in that section over the weekend. Epic Games is now temporary turned off the Daily section of Fortnite’s Item Store completely and will re-enable with the next Item Store refresh.
At the opening show of the Astroworld festival in Houston on Friday night, eight people were killed and many were injured when fans are pushed onto the stage. It was reported that Scott continued to hold his concert, although promoters agreed to stop the show after seeing people in distress. The rest of the festival was canceled, and The musician is currently facing several lawsuits, one of which claimed he was “inciting mayhem”.
Scott tweeted an apology on Saturday, saying he was “absolutely devastated by what took place”. He added that he’s committed to working with the Houston community “to heal and support struggling families.”
Travis Scott’s Astronomical Event was formerly digitally held in Fortnite in April last year, to which some of the rapper’s character skins were added. I’ve reached out to Epic Games for comment and will update this post if I get a response.
