On Sunday, blockbuster Royal Shooter Fornite went dark intentionally.
For the uninitiated, Fortnite is an online game developed by Epic Games in 2017 and is played by over 250 million people across the globe. It is a survival game where 100 players fight against each other in player versus player combat to be the last one standing.
However, you can’t play the game right now as a result of “The End” event, wrapping up its 10th season content. Its official Twitter page also shows a live feed of a dark sky in-game showing a black hole. All other tweets were hidden but have been reinstated since.
As Fornite Season XI is set to debut this week, people are estimating that The End is serving as a promotional tease for the upcoming season.
Epic Games rakes in about US$300m per month from the game, largely from people who spend money on the outfits and other items for their characters. Also, in the form of a battle pass system, where players pay at least US$10 for challenges that enable them to unlock more content.
A law firm in Canada filed a lawsuit against Epic Games claiming that Fortnite operated similar to slot machines which were as addictive as cocaine.
Amidst all the chaos, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk ended up retweeting a false story from 2018 in which he had joked about Musk buying and deleting the game.
The tweet has been retweeted about 300,000 times because people were assuming the news to be for real.
While some fans are assuming it could be the end, it may not be so. PlayStation has assured players that they don’t have to worry about losing their items.
So, is this just a hype for the next season? Well, it is most likely. The 11th season will commence soon and Fortnite has resorted to such gimmicks before. At the end of its 7th season, big cracks started to form in the island as a result of earthquakes. In the 8th season, this formed a big volcano.
If you want to know what happens next, you will have to stay tuned. You may consider playing a Galaga-esque mini-game or just keep watching the black hole.