Epic Games released a “new” pet dog nicknamed Gunner to the in-game Fortnite Item Shop earlier and players were soon able to notice some similarities between Gunner and a previously released item.

Gunner, available for 1000 V-bucks would allow players to carry around a dog on their backs as a back bling. It wasn’t the price that was the issue for many but the similarity to Bonesy, a dog backpack back bling that was included in a previous Battle Pass! A few colour changes may have been acceptable but this was essentially the same item with a mask (that is barely visible on most platforms) as reported by PhantomRacer32.

With Battle Pass items meant to be exclusive and only obtained during that Season, players weren’t happy with this decision from Epic. It wasn’t long before Epic apologised for the inclusion of Gunner in the Fortnite Item Shop and mentioned that all players who purchased the pet will receive a full refund and an additional 200 V-Bucks over the next few days. If you refund the pet now, you will still receive the 200 bonus V-Bucks and also an additional Refund Token.

Unfortunately, players won’t be able to keep Gunner as it will be removed from your locker when the V-Bucks refunds are processed by Epic.

It’s not the first time Epic has come under fire for selling items similar to Battle Pass items. Many players were not happy with Epic’s decision to reskin the Drift skin to a summer version and put it on the Item Shop, with many believing it should have been made available as an additional style for Drift.

Did you purchase Gunner? And would you mind if similar items that were previously available through Battle Passes appeared in the Item Shop? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.