Forza Horizon 4’s Latest Update Removes Some Dance Emotes
A recently released Forza Horizon 4 update not only brought numerous fixes, seven new Mitsubishi cars, a “Free-For-All Adventure” online mode, a cabbie-focused Horizon Story, and more but also removed two in-game dance emotes: the “Carlton” emote and the “Floss” emote.
“The ‘Carlton’ and ‘Floss’ avatar emotes are no longer available,” the update’s release notes read. Though no explanation was given for this decision, it was possibly made in response to several recent lawsuits that have targeted Epic Games for allegedly stealing dance moves for use as emotes in Fortnite.
It certainly didn’t help that the “Carlton” emote was clearly a reference to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air character, Carlton Banks. The actor who played Carlton on the show, Alfonso Ribeiro, filed a lawsuit last December against both Epic Games and 2K for allegedly stealing the dance and not compensating him in any way.
“It is widely recognized that Mr. Ribeiro’s likeness and intellectual property have been misappropriated by Epic Games in the most popular video game currently in the world, Fortnite,” Ribeiro’s attorney, David Hecht, reportedly said.
“Epic has earned record profits off of downloadable content in the game, including emotes like ‘Fresh.’ Yet Epic has failed to compensate or even ask permission from Mr. Ribeiro for the use of his likeness and iconic intellectual property,” Hecht added.
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