A second Sabrina Carpenter emote hit the Item Shop recently. Caffeinated, which does a dance to Carpenter’s hit song Espresso, was in the Item Shop for about one rotation before Epic removed it. The rest of the bundle for the artist, which includes her Sonic Surfer emote and two Jam Tracks, was not purposefully removed by the developers. Only the Caffeinated emote, which had some backlash, was taken out. It’s unclear what Epic’s next steps are.
Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly
Epic Removes Fortnite Caffeinated Emote
According to leaker ShiinaBR, Epic Games intentionally removed the emote. You can no longer purchase Fortnite Caffeinated for now. The backlash began when the emote first arrived, as fans were disappointed that the dance featured a slightly sped-up version of the song. It wasn’t quite the original version that Carpenter had dominating charts during the summer.
People still bought the emote, but there was enough backlash to force Epic’s hand.
Fortnite Status gave an official statement. It says the same thing but uses the word “temporarily.” The Sabrina Carpenter emote is going to come back, but it’s not clear when. The status update did not say what Epic was doing with it, but it’s not hard to guess.
Given the backlash, Epic is likely going to either replace the emote with the normal version of Espresso or provide an option for either one.
If they do replace the song in its entirety, players who got the first emote will likely be able to refund it for free without a refund ticket. This is likely what they’re going to do no matter what since so many players were upset. Once Caffeinated makes it back to the shop, those who bought it will likely get a message from Epic. They won’t have to refund it, but they can if they want.
Once again, there is no timeline for this. It likely won’t take very long for Epic to switch out the song or make a new emote, though.