If you (or your kids) are Fortnite fans, there’s a fair chance you’ve spent much of the past day staring at a black hole.
At around 7pm Sunday evening (BST), Fortnite had one of its regular end-of-season events where weapons are disabled and everyone sits back and watches what unfolds.
It started with a rocket launching from the facility that had cropped up in the old Dusty Depot site…
Moved into a barrage of meteors landing on the Fortnite map…
Saw all the players sucked off the island…
And then left us staring at a black hole…
At the time of writing, at near 7am on Monday morning, it’s been that way ever since.
Is this really the end of Fortnite?
Epic Games is certainly doing its best to crank up that tension. For example, every tweet on the @FortniteGame Twitter account has been deleted, bar one, a live video feed of the black hole graphic.
The official Fortnite website is showing nothing but the black hole image, either.
Millions of people around the world are literally staring at a black hole waiting for something to happen. As a West Ham supporter, some of us are used to this…
The end of Fortnite… it seems unlikely
There are, of course, inevitable rumours that this is the end of Fortnite, that Epic Games has bowed out in spectacular fashion. I don’t believe those for a second and here’s why.
First, it would be the biggest act of financial suicide since Brexit. Epic Games makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year from Fortnite. It’s a virtual industry of its own, with its own in-game currency, very real merchandise and professional gaming events such as the World Cup. Although its popularity has waned slightly in recent months, pulling it now is unthinkable.
Second, even before the black hole caper, there were leaks suggesting the map would be completely destroyed and replaced with a new one. This so-called Fortnite Chapter 2 ‘leaked’ on the Italian version of Apple’s App Store – that was almost certainly done deliberately to calm nerves about a potential shut down.
Finally, Epic Games’ partners – such as Sony’s @AskPlayStation Twitter account – last night tweeted that all V-Bucks and in-game purchases would be safe.
If you’re a parent of a kid who’s refusing to go to school because they want to see what happens with the black hole, you have my sympathy. As an editor of a Fortnite magazine that goes to press today, I hope I have yours too…
NOW READ THIS: Is Fortnite suitable for kids?
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