Just when you thought Epic couldn’t squeeze another dollar out of your money bank, Fortnite found a new way to sell you something special.
Introducing Fortnite Sidekicks, the most recent and arguably most useless addition to the games ecosystem of predatory micro-transactions, which arrive at the same time as the Fortnite Simpsons mini-season collab.
These sidekicks are exactly what the name implies: little buddies, mostly in the shape of animals that follow you around across the regular Battle Royale mode, LEGO Fortnite, and Save The World.
If you look at it with rose-tinted glasses, it looks like a “no harm, no foul” situation. They’re just little digital pets after all, we’ve had emotes before, and they’re just cosmetic, right? But if you look a little closer, it’s getting increasingly tough to feel like Epic’s new, fantastic idea is yet another move to get as much of your hard-earned cash as possible. And you may end up opening your wallet for a tiny bit of nothing.
What Are Fortnite Sidekicks?
The name is on the tin – they are little, admittedly adorable, cosmetic companions that follow you around. The twist? They don’t fight, they can’t help you, they don’t die, and they aren’t visible to anyone but you.
They’re literally just designed to look cute, the only thing they really do other than look the way they do, is react to whatever’s happening around you. Oh, and they also make funny gestures every now and then.
What you can do with them, is customize them, with, you guessed it, another currency. These Sidekick Points are thankfully earned by just having them around, so you don’t need to grab deeper into your wallet to customize them.
Another Step in Fortnite Micro-transactions
There’s something deeply unsettling about the way Sidekicks are being marketed. Epic isn’t selling you an advantage, true, but they’re selling you companionship. A cute little friend who reacts to the world around you and keeps you company. It’s clever psychological design, tying emotion to monetization.
It’s the same logic behind pet cosmetics in MMOs – only Fortnite has turned it into a cross-mode, feature-rich system, complete with progression, points, and personality. It’s micro-transactions wearing a warm smile.
While these features don’t harm gameplay, they represent the growing shift in how games monetize affection. The digital equivalent of a Tamagotchi, except it costs real money and probably has seasonal variants you’ll need to buy separately.
Sidekicks Are Adorable But Also Completely Pointless
They represent something much darker under the surface, a symptom of how predatory Fortnite – and gaming as a whole – has become, especially considering how young the fanbase of Fortnite and other, similar games is.
True, there’s no harm in them per se, and customizing your experience with cosmetics has never been a bad thing in itself. But let’s face facts, this is marketed as the next great feature in Fortnite, a game that is arguably one of the most profitable games in 2025 already. The caveat is the fact that these digital buddies serve no real gameplay function, so it isn’t entirely unfair to candidly ask what it is we’re paying for here.
