Fortnite just pulled bear hug emote due to NSFW glitch

Fortnite
(Image credit: Epic Games)

Epic has had to pull its new “bear hug” emote from Fortnite after a glitch made the animation look a little... questionable.

While the emote was just supposed to allow two players to hug, an unfortunate glitch meant that if one person crouched just before performing the animation, it didn't look like just a hug anymore. The glitch was captured by Twitter user @DatOneJackalope, and was pulled from the game shortly afterwards. 

While we’re sad to see something this hilarious go, it makes sense that Epic had to remove it. Fortnite’s main audience is kids, after all, and with celebrities like LeBron James and Ariana Grande represented by characters in the game, Epic wouldn’t want to get in any trouble with their management by enabling users to recreate a risqué pose with their likenesses.

According to the Fortnite Status Twitter account, anyone who bought the emote will be able to get their V-bucks refunded. It also stated that the emote will remain disabled until the issue is fixed, meaning even people who had the emote on their account won’t be able to use it right now. 

There’s currently no word on when the emote will return, but the refund will apparently be available in the next week, so we’d expect the emote to return sometime after that.

The bear hug emote first debuted as part of Ariana Grande’s virtual Fortnite concert, which ran from August 6-8. We hope that it does get fixed and make a comeback, if only to give us something to remember the whole ordeal by.

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Millie Davis-Williams

Millie is a Deals Editor at Tom's Guide specializing in deals content. She also covers the latest tech news and and creates how-to articles about everything from phones, streaming devices, and headphones to apps and video games. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, gaming on her Nintendo Switch and creating digital art.

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