There was a lot of buzz when Fortnite introduced the Pirate Shop tokens last week. Everyone piled onto the servers in a disorderly queue hoping to reap weeks of free Item Shop cosmetics.

But now that the honeymoon phase is over, and we've been forced to listen to that opening One Piece riff a billion times, players are accusing Epic Games of using predatory practices just to compete with GTA 6.

The problem is that Epic Games hasn't disclosed the odds of finding a token, meaning that every single chest has essentially been turned into a free loot box. And just like with loot boxes, there's only a slim chance that you win big. Most of the time, you'll get a few throwaway consumables that let you fire your name into the sky. Best case, you get a new pickaxe.

"I think the idea is to introduce a gambling addiction to the game," @RealGojifan01 argued. "And, unfortunately, it's working on a lot of people. This is why I am eternally grateful I don't care enough about the token because there's nothing I want from the Item Shop right now."

"I hate making tweets like this, but I truly think there’s no coming back for Fortnite honestly," added @kymanji. "If one of the most popular games in the world has to rely on straight gambling directed towards children just to keep retention rates up, it won’t last against GTA 6."

It's not strictly gambling in the legal sense, as players aren't paying to open chests, but the similarities to randomized reward systems are hard to ignore.

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