Back in Season 6 of Fortnite Battle Royale, the video game developer Epic Games decided to add pets as a cosmetic in the wildly successful free-to-play online multiplayer shooter, with players able to bring animals such as a dog, a chameleon, and a blue dragon along with them into the fight as back bling. Now, the studio has brought about the latest update for Fortnite that actually allows players to interact with these animals by petting them.

While this addition in Update 8.40 will likely please those Fortnite Battle Royale fans who have wanted to express their love and adoration for the title's back bling pets in-game, it's worth noting that the animation dedicated to petting the animals may not be as satisfying as one would imagine. As a matter of fact, the actual action looks less like an animal being petted and more like the player character swiping their hand in the air at nothing in particular.

As many gamers have likely noticed with many newer releases, Fortnite Battle Royale isn't the only title that lets players pet cuddly little creatures in-game. As it so happens, developers have been continually adding the ability to pet animals in games as a part of what appears to be a sweeping trend dedicated to providing more realism and immersion. One of the biggest examples of this is Rockstar Games making it so that Red Dead Redemption 2 players can pet dogs when they encounter the canines in the open world.

Beyond the addition of petting the back bling animals, Epic Games has also used Update 8.40 to bring about two new Limited Time Modes for Fortnite Battle Royale, with one being dubbed Air Royale and the other being called Food Fight - Deep Fried. The former has players climbing aboard a plane to fight opponents in other aircrafts to be the last one flying, while the latter pits two teams against one another to in a bid protect their respective restaurant mascot from enemies seeking to destroy the opposing mascot.

All things considered, it's great to see Epic Games bringing such fun little additions as being able to pet the animals into Fortnite Battle Royale, but one can only hope that they refine the animation in the future. Of course, should that ever occur, it would likely come at the cost of a player leaving themselves open to enemy fire, as all of their attention would be focused on nuzzling a back bling pet instead of being focused on surviving.

Fortnite is available now in early access for Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: Epic Games, Can You Pet the Dog? - Twitter