Fortnite developer Epic Games has effectively hidden two in-game emotes featuring music by U.S. singer D4vd — but some fans say the company should go further, and fully scrub the content from the game.
As of today’s Fortnite update, which is now live, the “Feel It” and “Trophy Drop” emotes that include music by D4vd will no longer be heard by other players by default, unless a pre-existing in-game setting to hear “Confrontational Emotes” is manually switched on.
The setting was previously introduced to mute some of the game’s most toxic and most-used emotes, which players would frequently use to spam and grief others. Now, D4vd’s music has been added to that list.
21-year-old D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, was recently charged with the murder of a 14-year-old girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez. It is alleged that he killed her on or around April 23, 2025 after she threatened to report their relationship. Burke pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14, and mutilating a dead body.
Fortnite fans had called on Epic Games to ditch D4vd’s music for months, during which time the content has been conspicuous by its absence from Fortnite’s regularly rotating in-game shop. But while Epic Games may have chosen not to sell or promote the content further, many fans feel it should no longer exist in the game at all.
Currently included in Fortnite are the aforementioned two emotes, as well as a music track, What Are You Waiting For. On YouTube, an animated music collaboration between D4vd and Fortnite titled “Locked & Loaded” features the singer’s music and likeness interacting with Fortnite characters. The video now features dozens of negative comments calling for its deletion, and surprise that it is still online.
Last weekend, Epic Games released a statement via its Fortnite Status social media account that said it had heard “the concerns” from fans and would begin making “a bunch of changes we’re rolling out over time.” The first of these, made live earlier this week, was the ability for owners to manually request a refund for D4vd content. Whether these changes will eventually result in the full removal D4vd content, however, remains unknown.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
