The developers behind Roblox smash hit Dress to Impress have pulled a hotdog costume from the game after players used it to look like a penis.
Dress to Impress, from developer Gigi, launched inside Roblox in November last year and took the controversial user-generated content platform by storm. It tasks players with putting themed outfits on their avatars before they’re ranked.
Dress to Impress is meant to be a wholesome experience, but, as reported by Eurogamer, the recently added hotdog costume sparked less savory behavior. Players changed the color of the costume and combined it with a specific hat to make their fit look phallic. (For more, check out IGN’s Dress to Impress Halloween Update 2024 guide, which has all the details and patch notes.)
They done ruined up the hotdog for everyone @_Dress2Impress ? please fix this #DressToImpress pic.twitter.com/tpZ8T7RigL
— slay bestie (@Numerou14390151) October 20, 2024
the hot dog costume was a mistake in the new dress to impress update pic.twitter.com/wrYlssPwPA
— NATALiE JUPiTER ??? (@luvreignoerme) October 22, 2024
Dress to Impress development manager Zac initially took to X/Twitter to signal the removal of the hotdog costume’s colorable toggles, forcing players to use it as a plain hotdog costume. But Zac warned that if players continued to misuse the costume, it would be removed. “We want to create a safe and friendly environment for our players and it was not intended to be used this way,” Zac added.
Of course, players continued to misuse it, and so now the hotdog costume is no more. “Here’s the thing: we cannot simply change our whole UI system for a simple hotdog costume,” Zac explained.
“Creativity is the point of the game, and we see a lot of tweets that prove that. But, we just can’t give other outlets to something this serious. We love all of your creativity with it (besides the reasons we are removing it..) but it’s better for us and for the community just to end it asap.”
To that end, Dress to Impress’ hotdog costume is now replaced by a cupcake outfit. But even that has had to be changed as determined virtual penis-looking outfit fans changed the cupcake’s color to look like, well, you know. And so in response to that, the cupcake is non recolorable. Now that’s a happy ending.
after seeing plenty of comments, the cupcake will be non recolorable ?
— zac (@studiozacc) October 22, 2024
Dress to Impress’ hotdog kerfuffle comes amid Roblox policy changes for pre-teen users that follow ongoing accusations of child-safety failures, which Roblox has denied. A 2023 class action lawsuit in California accused the Roblox Corporation of being misleading about "the efficacy of its filtering technologies and its ability to make the site safe and appropriate for children." A 2021 report by YouTube channel People Make Games alleged Roblox was exploiting child labor.
Image credit: @Numerou14390151
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
