Fortnite bans paid prize wheels in third-party games just days after Steal the Brainrot started selling them

Just a few days after the massively popular Fortnite game Steal the Brainrot took advantage of a rules change to roll out paid wheel-spins for prizes—gambling, in other words—Epic has announced another incoming rule change that seems pretty directly aimed at putting a stop to it.

The new rule was announced on X and the Fortnite Creative subreddit, and is set to take effect on January 20. It states:

"Do not offer any in-island transactions that directly or indirectly influence prize wheels in any way. For example, you must not offer as an in-island transaction a 'spin' or 'increased luck' for a prize wheel."

Examples of newly disallowed transactions are listed on Epic's developer documentation page:

• A luck boost that can improve the outcomes on a prize wheel
• In-game content that can be used to purchase a spin on a prize wheel
• Any spin on a prize wheel, such as a single spin, extra spin, or bundle of spins.

It's not mentioned by name, but this would seem to be pretty much a direct result of the Steal the Brainrot controversy that erupted earlier this week. For years, Epic did not allow Fortnite game creators to sell items directly to players from within their games, but that all changed on January 9, when the rule was lifted in pursuit of making Fortnite a little more Roblox-like.

It took almost no time for Steal the Brainrot, one of the biggest third-party Fortnite games, to make the obvious move: It began selling a "Present Rot" bundle for 4,900 V-Bucks (a bundle of 5,000 V-Bucks costs $37) and, more insidiously, launched a virtual wheel players could spin for various in-game effects or small amounts of in-game cash—for 100 V-Bucks a spin.

That in particular did not go over well with players and creators alike: Fortnite content partner Moon wrote on X that "the most popular UEFN game is now a gambling game targeted towards kids who don't know any better. 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."

So while this new rule isn't called the Brainrot Exclusion or anything like that, it pretty clearly targets it: There may be other Fortnite games offering similar wheels, but Steal the Brainrot is the biggest of the bunch, and overtly targeted to a younger audience. Brian Sharon, senior communications manager at Epic Games, told PC Gamer the company will "continually review developer practices and make updates to our ecosystem rules accordingly."