Epic disables Fortnite Bear Hug emote, will issue refunds next week

Epic Games has disabled the new “Bear Hug” emote in Fortnite after a not-so-savory bug was found to be associated with it.

The news was confirmed earlier today on the Fortnite Status Twitter account, which provides players with updates on different aspects of the game. In addition to being disabled, Epic confirmed that the emote has been removed from the Item Shop for the time being.

Normally, the Bear Huge emote allows you to perform, as the name suggests, a bear hug with another player. While the emote did function as advertised most of the time, it also had a comical bug associated with it. 

Some players found that when they’d “bear hug” with each other, one player would be shown in a position similar to an explicit act, resulting in some unintentionally inappropriate moments in the game. 

Epic has confirmed that the emote is going to remain disabled while it works on the issue associated with it. Fortnite data miner iFireMonkey said on Twitter that it’s going to stay disabled for the “remainder of 17.30”.

Update 17.30 was made available just a few days ago. And with updates generally lasting around a week, players shouldn’t be shocked if this stays disabled until around Tuesday, Aug. 10, or later.

Epic also revealed that considering the fact the Bear Hug emote has been removed from the store, it’ll be issuing refunds to the players who own it. This refund will go live sometime within the next week, but no other details have been given at this time.