The day after Epic enables microtransactions in Fortnite islands, one of the most popular games on the platform rolls out a $37 'gift pack' and in-game gambling

Back in September, Epic Games announced that it would enable "in-island transactions" in Fortnite, meaning that makers of Fortnite islands would be able to sell items directly from within their creations—part of an unspoken effort to make the game, and the revenues it pulls in, a little more Roblox-like. Originally planned to roll out in December, the DIY microtransactions didn't end up going live until January 9, immediately after which things started going sideways.

Steal the Brainrot, one of the most popular third-party games on Fortnite, moved very quickly to take advantage of the new policy once it went alive, and it was not especially gentle in its approach. As noted by IGN, Steal the Brainrot now offers a "Present Rot" bundle for 4,900 V-Bucks—that's $37, if you buy a bundle of 5,000 V-Bucks.

You can also, if you like, spin a virtual wheel for a shot at various in-game effects or small amounts of cash—for 100 V-Bucks a spin.

Fortnite map maker Richytoons also called out the Steal the Brainrot developers, saying, "You make us all look bad with this kind of stuff."

"The most popular UEFN game is now a gambling game targeted towards kids who don’t know any better," Fortnite content partner Moon wrote in another message on X. "They will mindlessly spend thousands of v-bucks for a CHANCE to get better in-game items, and they will fall into this trap / loop every single time they find a map with little things they like."

"This whole thing sucks," one redditor wrote from the perspective of a parent whose children are big into Fortnite. "Turns Fortnite into a mess to try and let my kids play unsupervised. They know not to buy anything from the regular store, but how are third party 'devs' with no moral compass going to obfuscate their microtransactions in new ways that are going to be intentionally designed to trick kids into spending money."

Numerous other redditors, however, responded to say that it's up to parents, and not game developers, to control what their kids spend money on. It's an ironic reaction, given the very loud upset over loot boxes in videogames not so many years ago: Epic Games itself, you may recall, was sued over the presence of "predatory" loot boxes in Fortnite Save the World, which were eventually removed from the game "because we realized that some players were repeatedly disappointed by not receiving the random items they hoped for," Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said at the time. "Players should know upfront what they are paying for when they make in-game purchases."

That's not the only time Sweeney has spoken out against loot boxes: During a DICE keynote in 2020 he asked his audience, "Do we want to be like Las Vegas, with slot machines ... or do we want to be widely respected as creators of products that customers can trust?"

It's only been a day into the microtransaction Fortnite update, and we already have Steal The Brainrot, a game whos main demographic is kids, offering lootboxes / mystery-boxes which is gambling.#Fortnite #FortniteNews

— @newsfortnite.bsky.social (@newsfortnite.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-01-12T22:57:41.283Z

To be clear, Epic is not the creator of Steal the Brainrot and so isn't responsible for the addition of high-price microtransactions and gambling, but it does allow and enable them to happen on its platform. I'm a pretty big proponent of letting adults do what they want with their money—go ahead and preorder that game you want, I don't care—but games like Steal the Brainrot are targeted first and foremost at younger kids, which is what makes all of this so gross. Fortnite does offer parental controls, including the ability to disable paying for randomized items, but if there's one thing the entire history of videogames has taught us, is that's parental controls have limited utility when it comes to keeping kids from getting into what they want.

It may be that this is a classic unforeseen outcome and Epic will adjust its policies accordingly, but it may also view Steal the Brainrot's pricy MTX and gambling (and whatever other examples inevitably follow) as an unfortunate but necessary by-product of online freedom—the repugnant price we pay for the greater good. For now, the company is standing pat.

"The existing offers in Steal the Brainrot follow our rules and guidelines," Brian Sharon, senior communications manager at Epic Games, told PC Gamer. "We will continue to update our rules and guidelines as needed (see our changelog). Developers must stay within the 50-5,000 V-Bucks price range and make the numerical odds transparent when offering paid random items."