“Thousands” of Fortnite Players Were Banned This Weekend After The Launch of Proximity Voice Chat Delulu Mode

The megapopular battle royale’s latest no-build mode, Fortnite Delulu, began on September 19 at 9 a.m. ET and ran until September 22, 9 am E.T. The limited time mode involved players starting games solo, but having the ability to team up with other players they ran into. While the match only lets one player win, players can spend most of the match in squads of up to four with strangers who will hopefully turn out to be reliable teammates. An important factor of this new mode is that it requires players to set their voice chat settings to “Everybody” in order to participate in proximity voice chat, i.e., the ability to chat with other players based on in-game distance. 

Somewhat predictably, this new mode has run into some issues. As IGN reports, there are numerous Reddit threads about players experiencing misogyny and racism, not to mention the general toxicity that tends to come with player anonymity. Granted, there are also quite a few comments about the positive experiences players enjoyed when the folks they ran into decided to actually act normal. Still, it’s a bit telling that a thread titled “Delulu in a nutshell,” sitting at almost 3K upvotes and over 290 comments, is an image that splashes the words “Fortnite Xenophobic” on top of the event’s promotional image.

Epic Games currently plans on running Fortnite Delulu again this upcoming weekend, from September 26, 9 a.m. ET to September 29, 9 a.m. ET. Considering how the first weekend went, there are likely quite a few more bans in the game’s future as long as the proximity voice chat remains mandatory.