Kizuna Ai Is Landing in Fortnite on January 16
News of the very popular VTuber’s collaboration with Fortnite leaked on January 10, and Epic Games confirmed that the leak is real. She is coming to Fortnite on January 16, 2025.
Cool! Which Kizuna Ai Items Can I Get?
The items coming to Fortnite are the following:
- Skin with LEGO variant
- Jersey Skin with LEGO variant
- Wings Back Bling
- Chibi AI-Chan Back Bling
- Hello, Morning Emote
- Hello, Morning Jam Track
- Wrapped in AI Wrap
- Special Loading Screen
- Lovely Kizuna Back Bling/Instrument
- Voice of Love Back Bling/Instrument
Fortnite players can purchase the bundle, but pricing is unknown at this time. Players can also unlock the main skin for free prior to January 16. Players can also get free cosmetics by participating in the Icon Cup. The Duo tournament is crossplay enabled, and players can play up to ten matches throughout three hours.
Points accumulated are based on placement and number of eliminations. Teams who complete the challenge in their respective regions will earn the primary Outfit and winged Back Blings in the VTuber’s style.
For fans of the Festival mode, the songs “Hello, Morning;” “future base” and “mirai” will be in the game.
Who is Kizuna Ai?
This Vtuber is one of the world’s first superstar VTubers who brought virtual YouTubing into the spotlight. Voiced by Nozomi Kasuga, she’s a Japanese VTuber who rose to fame as a variety content creator on YouTube, uploading videos since late 2016.
The Vtuber was on hiatus from 2022 until 2025, only updating the social media for important announcements. As the VTuber scene evolved, Kizuna AI Inc. ventured into collaborating with NFT companies such as Metaani in 2021. The famous VTuber is primarily a character with a production team, instead of one person behind a character.
The pink-bowed VTuber appeared as several characters in the mobile gacha game Azur Lane. She also appeared in games such as Project Tokyo Dolls and Super Mecha Champions. She was a DLC character for the Superdimension Neptunia 10th anniversary game Neptunia Virtual Stars.
Thanks to the widespread efforts of the VTubing team, and similar Vtubing companies and characters, the VTuber industry currently has agencies, concerts, sponsored streams, crossover cosmetics and talents with millions of subscribers.
Reactions to the Collaboration
On X (formerly Twitter), there is a community note under Fortnite Festival’s reveal of the VTuber, due to several people mistaking the VTuber as Artificial Intelligence.
One person who recently learned about the VTuber posted on Bluesky:
“TIL that there’s a vtuber named “Kizuna AI” who is an actual real person. Recently Epic announced a partnership between Fortnite and Kizuna AI which did not go well because everyone just saw the “AI” and lost their shit. An unfortunate outcome but also an indicator of how fed-up people are with AI.”
Another Bluesky user posted about the confusion people have with the VTuber’s name. They wrote, “The ‘well her name is Kizuna AI so she must be genAI’ discourse is rapidly approaching and will be [expletive] unbearable.”
Apparently, members of the Vtubing community are displeased at the news of the VTuber’s collaboration with the Epic Games battle royale. A Bluesky user wrote, “VTubers hating on [the Vtuber] is wild. Like, bro, she ran so you could walk.”
Several people note the Vtuber company’s collaboration with an NFT company, while others are excited for the VTuber to hang out with Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Someone on X pointed out that she played Fortnite during Chapter 1, Season 3 in 2018.
What Does Her Name Mean?
Ai is the Japanese word for “love” and Kizuna has several meanings in Japanese: bonds (between people), (emotional) ties, relationship, connection and link. Therefore, the VTuber’s name can mean “Bonds of Love.”
