Gaming

Somehow, Fortnite Is Now Involved In Soulja Boy’s Bizarre Video Game Scheme

by Joseph Earp  21 January 2019
Soulja Boy and his new console venture are getting rebuked

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

It’s been a big few weeks for people who like reading stories about Soulja Boy (welcome my fellow brethren, we had a dry few years there, didn’t we?)

Soulja Boy was once best known for rising to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with his anthem ‘Crank That (Soulja Boy)’. That song topped the charts for an astonishing seven consecutive weeks in the early thousands, joining all sports, croissants, and any season of Riverdale past the first one in the ranks of awful things people inexplicably like.

But these days, Soulja Boy has slowly pivoted to a different career mode, becoming a one-man console company/blatant rip-off artist.

Yes, in the most abrupt late career U-turn since Danny from The Shining became a biology professor, or actor James Woods became a massive shithead on Twitter, Soulja Boy has packed in his past life and started selling almost definitely illegal emulators disguised as consoles.

The first such console, the SouljaGame, launched in December last year, was basically just a very highly-priced emulator that you could use to play a range of Nintendo classics.

The SouljaGame was pulled from most online stores when it became clear the famously litigious Nintendo was probably gearing up to sue. But that hasn’t stopped Soulja Boy, who has announced a new console that he promises will be able to play mega-hit game Fortnite.

Well, we say ‘that hasn’t stopped Soulja Boy’, but chances are Soulja is going to get stopped very soon: Epic Games, the folks behind Fortnite, have already shut down the rapper’s latest claim, with a single, deeply cutting quote.

“You can’t play Fortnite on a rooted or jailbroken device due to anti-cheat measures,” said Nick Chester of Epic.

It’s worth noting that while Soulja Boy is making news for selling deeply janky emulators and allegedly infringing copyright laws, he’s simultaneously claiming that he himself has been ripped off by Ariana Grande and her new single ‘7 Rings.’

Oh well. Despite all his setbacks, I must admit at this stage I’m weirdly rooting for ole mate Soulja: the man has more faith in himself than I have ever had in my life, and for that, I salute him.