Fortnite Paradigm Skin Issue: Everything You Need To Know

Mishaps do happen. For Epic Games, it takes the form of accidentally putting a rare skin in the item shop. 

It’s a craze out there in the Fortnite community since the magical appearance of an extremely rare skin in the item shop. The 2019 Fortnite rare cosmetic, Paradigm Skin, was released in Season X and is part of The Seven Set. That’s why it made noise in the community as players scrambled to grab the exclusive item in the shop. 

The Paradigm Skin’s Surprise Return

Great news surprised Fortnite players on August 8, 2024, as Paradigm Skin became available on the Fortnite Item Shop. This gets the community hyped, especially the long-time collectors and newcomers. 

They marketed the skin as an exclusive and time-limited item for the season X finale event. So, just imagine the rush to purchase the rare cosmetic off the shelf. 

Epic’s Response to the Mishap

Epic Games’ has been quick to handle the situation. However, the team might have taken a bit of a turnover here and there before reaching the final decision. 

In the initial response, they removed the Paradigm Skin from the shop after an hour in the sales notice. This has sparked another conversation in the community as the removal came up without an explanation. 

Due to a bug, we unintentionally brought Paradigm back into the Shop and have since removed it.

Within the week we’ll be removing Paradigm from recent purchaser’s Lockers and refunding the purchase as this was a limited time exclusive Outfit during Chapter 1 Season X. pic.twitter.com/XgmBlMQyY1

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) August 7, 2024

Eventually, Epic released a refund announcement on X. The team says that they’ll be removing Paradigm from players’s lockers and will refund the purchase instead. 

Yet, in a surprising twist of events, Epic Games came back with good news. The developers decided to let buyers keep the Paradigm Skin and, at the same time, receive a V-bucks refund. 

Change of plan! Bought The Paradigm tonight? You can keep her!

Her accidental return to the Shop is on us… so if you purchased The Paradigm during this evening’s rotation, you can keep this Outfit and we’ll refund your V-Bucks soon-ish.

We plan to create a brand new variant…

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) August 7, 2024

It was likely the refunding and removal processes that influenced the final decision. As players purchase V-Bucks to buy the Paradigm Skin, it will be more complicated to remove. 

New, Exclusive Alternate Skin

Epic Games ease concerns from players who originally owned the Paradigm Skin. Original owners will receive a new, exclusive alternate style of skin to maintain value and exclusivity. 

However, the players may opt to refund the item as they’d like. A win-win situation for both purchasers, old and new, of the skin.

The Larger Context: Item Shop Issues

What happens with the Paradigm Skin is just a layer of a larger pattern of anomalies in the Fortnite item shop. Several incidents have been reported earlier this year that’s been causing frustration among players. 

Before their announcement on the resale of battle pass items in the Fortnite shop, some items were already reappearing. This caused confusion among players about the game title. 

On August 9, 2024, incorrect rotation dates for shop items were reported. This led to several offers ending earlier than the communicated number of days. These issues have been raising questions about Epic’s control over the item shop system. 

We’re correcting an error in the Shop where several offers shifted to an incorrect end date and resulted in some leaving early.

The offers that left with yesterday’s Shop rotation (such as Cyprus Nell) will return this evening, and be available for the originally communicated… pic.twitter.com/cooTNbjyAa

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) August 8, 2024

More on Fortnite’s Future Plans 

The incident started discussions on the exclusivity of items in Fortnite. However, Epic Games shared that future battle pass items will return to the item shop 18 months after the original release. 

The policy doesn’t apply to current or past battle passes. This is to avoid potential backlash from what transpires in the Paradigm Skin situation. 

Conclusion

The Paradigm Skin incident has not been a one-time situation for the developer team. They have to step up and refine their approach to the issues they’ve been facing in the item shop. Fortunately, they were able to tend to the skin issue immediately, which appeased the community. 

For now, collectors and newcomers who were able to purchase Paradigm Skin Fortnite during the mishap will get to enjoy the skin. On the other hand, original owners will have something to look forward to as Fortnite designs an exclusive new style.