Sidekicks seemed like a slam dunk for Fortnite. Add customizable pets that follow you around during matches and impress your friends. What could go wrong? Well, given the way they’ve been implemented in the current Simpsons season, a lot, apparently. One dramatic rallying cry within the community is calling for players to boycott the newest microtransaction opportunity over accusations of “greed.”
There are three main issues. The first is that Sidekicks—a banana dog named Peels went live in the battle pass on November 1—can only be customized once. After selecting things like size, color, and so on, you can’t go back to change them, forcing you to buy a second Sidekick if you want them to look different. Second, opponents can’t see Sidekicks, only your squadmates. And third, upcoming Sidekicks will be very expensive, at least according to alleged leaks. Some suggest prices as high as 2,800 V-Bucks a piece. Not great!
Hey @Fortnite please make the pricing more reasonable and let us edit our pets to whatever we want and for FREE once we own it.
“You can purchase the same Sidekick multiple times to give them different Appearances” pic.twitter.com/0B1CtTtDwS
— Fortnite Leaks | Pluto V2 (@FortnitePV2) October 31, 2025
“Why do I care so much about this?” wrote Mabdog420 on the Fortnite subreddit. “Why not just not buy the sidekicks and shut up about it? Because if we let this go unchecked it will ONLY GET WORSE. Epic always tries to implement predatory pricing or practices like reducing xp gains, and every time we’ve had to fight back to stop it.”
Some players in the comments reported being sent a user survey ahead of Sidekicks officially joining the Fortnite shop on November 7. “How do you feel about having to purchase an additional copy of the same sidekick if you want to customize your sidekick with different features?” it asks. Many are putting “Strongly Dislike” and wondering who on god’s green earth would put anything else.
Fortnite is currently sending out surveys to players, asking them about sidekicks and their controversial features 👀
They want to know what players think about “basic features” being permanently locked and the option to re-purchase them pic.twitter.com/oJUEODR32C
— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) November 2, 2025
Others have little faith that the broader Fortnite community will be able to resist, citing the addition of cosmetic shoes a year ago that other players can barely see but that enough people are seemingly spending real money to buy anyway. “I still find the shoes a bigger scam than this,” one player wrote. The ongoing trend is making some fans lose hope.
“Like someone who started pretty early in the game it makes me so sad to see what this has become,” another player wrote. “It’s like Once-ler in the Lorax but a game, to where we have to fight a metaphorical war just to get fair treatment. then having to settle with the plain oatmeal that they give us that’s just slightly tastier then all the other brands on the market so that’s why we stay. It’s just so tiring and such a depressing way for a gaming company to be seen and be ran.”
