Earlier today, Fortnite suspended the sale of any Travis Scott related content following the concert tragedy that left eight dead and hundreds more injured. For those that are unaware, a deadly surge took place at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival that took place in Houston last Friday. During Scott’s headlining performance, a panic broke out as thousands of concert-goers rushed to the front of the stage at the sold-out venue.
Fornite’s “Out West” emote which features audio of Scott’s song of the same name was originally on sale to coincide with the Astroworld Festival but has been suddenly pulled from the in-game item shop. According to a report originally published by The Verge, Epic has declined to comment on the matter.
#Update: @FortniteGame has removed a @trvisXX emote – which includes an audio snippet of "Out West". The emote was deleted from the game's item shop. Emotes are dance moves or actions characters can perform in the online game. #canceltravisscott #TravisScott #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/aqNPrgJOik
— Tyler Beltz (@TysTakeDaily) November 9, 2021
It has come out that the rapper is being sued by at least 35 plaintiffs on the grounds of gross negligence following his alleged failure to adequately respond to the danger before it turned deadly. Interestingly, this is not the first time Scott has faced legal action after a concert. In 2018, he plead guilty to a public disorder charge after he was accused of inciting a riot and endangering the welfare of a minor by encouraging concert-goers to surge during his set in the U.S state of Arkansaw.
Scott has since promised to cover the funeral expenses of those who were killed during the event last Friday and has also announced a partnership with BetterHelp, an online therapy service that will offer one month of counselling to those impacted by the tragedy. Despite these arguably tokenistic efforts, concert-goers have made it quite clear that Scott’s inaction is too little, too late and that his failures, paired with inadequate security and medical services are to blame for the disaster that took place in Houston just days ago.
At this time, it is unclear whether the “Out West” emote or any other Travis Scott related content will return to Fortnite’s in-game store, though as of writing, existing Travis Scott content is still being used by those who purchased it before today.
Our hearts go out to the victims of and anyone impacted by this preventable tragedy.
