[Updated] Galaxy S10 Fortnite iKONIK skin bundle: Saga of greed, mishaps & adventure

NOTICE: We’ve created an archive of all major developments related to the Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup. We are continuously updating that page with latest S10e/S10/S10+ news so that you don’t need to search for information related to the device on daily basis. Head here to access that page.

There are new updates that have been added to the bottom of the story…

Widespread 4G connectivity and the rise of budget friendly mid-range smartphones are playing a prime role behind the recent boom of mobile gaming, especially the battle royale genre. In one of our previous articles, we highlighted the trend of smartphone makers associating with the esports gamer community.

Despite the arrival of contenders like Apex Legends, veteran titles like Fortnite and PUBG are still holding their places – thanks to their availability on smartphones backed by the cross-platform nature. On the other hand, the scenario is somehow helping malware creators to start a raging infection spree.

Samsung, being one of the largest Android OEMs, could not resist themselves to exploit the hype bubble. To promote their 10th anniversary Galaxy S lineup, the Korean smartphone teamed up with Epic Games (creator of Fortnite Battle Royale) and brought exclusive goodies for the S10 owners.

Lead your squad to victory with the new iKONIK exclusive. It brings K-Pop finesse to your look with a rare outfit and ultra-fresh emote. Get iKONIK when you level up to Samsung’s most powerful lineup of gaming devices yet– the Galaxy S10e, S10, or S10+. It’s all available now!

Samsung initially planned to make the iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote available from March 8 to those who have bought Galaxy S10. The outfit is designed by eminent Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and based off the looks of Korean pop idol group iKON member Jung Chan-woo.

Now there is a catch! Avid Fortnite players may recall that a similar looking K-Pop outfit was emerged back in September 2018. It was buried deep inside the game assets, but eagle-eyed data miners were able to extract it anyway.

The skin never made its way to the actual game. Epic Games silently wiped out every instance of it from the game assets with subsequent updates.

Meanwhile, Samsung ‘accidentally’ put the S10-exclusive iKONIK outfit in their Galaxy Store for a brief amount of time for absolutely free! It happened a couple of days before the retail release of Galaxy S10 (March 8), which forced Samsung to postpone the official launch of the skin indefinitely.

Those who discovered the vulnerability, quickly grabbed the package. Samsung later posted a thread (unreachable at the time of posting, see cached version here) about the delay.

Hi Everyone,

In order for Galaxy S10 users to have the best experience redeeming the iKONIK outfit and Scenario emote, both Samsung and Epic Games are taking extra time to further review this process before making the promotion widely available.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will share updates on the outfit’s availability at www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-s10/fortnite/

They did not plan to force the ‘pirates’ to return the skin though. Epic employee as well as Community Manager JustMooney1 dropped an interesting comment:

The release date was later scheduled to March 16.

Samsung arranged a promotional event in New York at Samsung 837 on that day. They called it “one-of-a-kind Fortnite x Galaxy gaming experience” and unveiled the S10 exclusive skin there.

https://twitter.com/Samsung837/status/1105862649185738753

In another world, scammers and shady users are trading Samsung accounts which are eligible for the iKONIK skin. No need to dive into dark web – they are everywhere.

https://twitter.com/arturs4455/status/1107366738084200448

While the parallel business is going well, authentic users are reporting about a weird glitch while redeeming the free skin from their Galaxy S10. The error message is as follows:

Samsung In-App Purchase

Permission to purchase items in this app has been denied.

(E100008/6050/com.epicgames.fortnite)

https://twitter.com/Versacrifice/status/1107737606220140544

Samsung support has advised the affected users to contact them via private message.

Is the error surfaced as a bitter after effect of the rampant bootleg activations of iKONIK skin? We are clueless at this moment.

It is safe to assume that the Fortnite-Galaxy S10 hype train will not stop in near future. Stay tuned for more fascinating articles from us on this topic.

Over at Samsung US forums, those who are complaining about getting errors while redeeming the skin are being suggested by moderators to make sure all redeeming steps are being followed correctly. Here the steps:

More details here.

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