Former NBA star Kendrick Perkins shares that his two sons racked up a credit card bill of $16,000, which is about €14,720. They purchased countless skins in Fortnite without the father noticing.
Former NBA center Kendrick Perkins (35) is currently working for the US broadcaster ESPN. Due to the Corona pandemic, they are not running normal programming but are improvising. During a four-person talk round from his home office, the conversation turned to Fortnite.
It is known that Perkins has two sons. He became a father for the first time in 2007. One of the sons is therefore 12 years old.
I Hate Video Games
This is what Perkins says: In a conversational tone, Perkins explains why he hates video games. His children drive him crazy with it. While he has nothing to do with gaming, for the kids it’s all about Fortnite and NBA2K all day long.
Once, the former basketball star was in a store to buy something when his credit card was declined. Perkins was puzzled, then he found out: He had a bill of $16,000 on his credit card for Fortnite skins.
He says: “They bought skins. Every day. Whatever that is.” He then had to dispute the charge and said: “Forget the video game stuff.”
The other participants in the talk round made faces and were astonished by this high amount. If it were up to them, the kids would have received extensive house arrest.
Perkins says that when he looks at Fortnite: it’s as if they are tricking him. They said the game was free, but then you have to buy skins and all kinds of other stuff.
Perkins says his sons told him nothing about video games. Apparently, it’s up to his wife to deal with the video game stuff.
This is how it turned out: Perkins later added on Twitter: He would have gotten every penny back. He still has “nightmares about it” today.
It is unclear which skins exactly his sons spent so much money on.
Here’s what it’s about: No one has to buy skins or other cosmetics in Fortnite, they provide no gameplay advantage. However, Epic is extremely successful with its monetization concept in Fortnite and makes a lot of money:
- At least 250 million people play Fortnite
- In 2018, at the peak of the hype, Fortnite is said to have made about $3 billion in profit with skins and the “Battle Pass”
- Fortnite often targets younger gamers with its aesthetic and skins, although Fortnite is recommended for ages 12 and up
Kendrick Perkins is not the first parent surprised by a high bill in Fortnite. In January 2019, an 11-year-old boy spent $1200 on skins in Fortnite using his parents’ money. They contacted Epic Games and involved consumer protection. They got their money back.
It seems that there is often a problem where parents link their credit cards to the accounts and then lose track of how much their children spend in the games. And the kids lack any understanding of what money is truly worth.
Our author, Andreas Bertits, a father of multiple children, once explained in an article how he deals with it when his kids need more money to buy their stuff in games.
