ice queen fortnite skin
Epic is pulling out all its big guns for its Fortnite Christmas Eve/Day store. First they debuted an awesome Krampus skin, and now today, they have “Glimmer,” a new Ice Queen skin that looks uh, a little like a more well-known Ice Princess, and her arrival has blanketed the entire map in snow, instead of just the southwest corner.
Like Krampus, Glimmer is a legendary tier skin, and she has a rare glider (a horse-drawn carriage) and rare pickaxe (a snowflake wand), meaning it’s going to cost $20 to pick her up, and ~$35 for the entire set. Perfect, last minute Christmas day present for the Fortnite fan in your life? Epic is certainly hoping so, I bet.
So, on a scale of 1-10, how much is this is a total, blatant rip off of Elsa from Frozen? I mean, a solid 9, in my book. Clearly Elsa was the inspiration for this skin between the blonde hair, the baby blue outfit and the ice theme. Hell, she even arrived and covered the world in snow, which is literally the plot of Frozen.
Is this enough similarities to land Epic in legal hot water? Ehhh, probably not. But this isn’t the best look in an era when they’ve been accuse of ripping off dances to the point where they’re now being sued by multiple parties for using what is claimed to be stolen IP.
In this case, Epic would hardly be the first company to draw on existing characters for skin inspiration, however, they’re not the first company to take most of these dances either, but the size of Fortnite has attracted enough attention to get them sued.
An added wrinkle here is that Frozen is owned by Disney, who has been an official partner of Epic and Fortnite for crossover events like the Thanos LTM and Wreck-It Ralph 2 cross-promotion. So it does seem unlikely that Disney would end up suing their friend Epic for using Elsa’s “likeness” here. Still, would it have killed them to make her a brunette in a darker dress or something?
I mean, I personally don’t care at all, and I’ve already bought the skin because it rules. I just wonder if Epic continuing to push the bounds of IP “borrowing” when they’re such a high profile target is a good idea. Probably nothing will come of this, but at this point, I’m not going to rule anything out.
So, it’s Christmas, and once you open presents and hang out with family, there’s a snow-covered map waiting for you to explore. And if you find yourself on a losing streak today, remember, just let it go. Let it goooooo!
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