Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Forbes
Forbes
Business
Erik Kain, Contributor

Here's Everything That Happened When The Rocket Launched In 'Fortnite: Battle Royale'

The rocket left this enormous crack in the sky.

I was lucky enough to get into a Fortnite match just as the rocket launched. I was in a 50 vs 50 match gliding down toward the Evil Lair when the rocket took off, leaving a long trail as it blasted off high above the map.

That’s when things got interesting. The rocket went up and up and up and then…

  • The rocket’s thruster broke off, landing in the middle of Anarchy Acres.
  • Lasers appeared in the sky, apparently targeting Tilted Towers.
  • The rocket blasted toward Tilted, accelerating as it approached.
  • Just before crashing into Tilted it veered off and broke through the fabric of space and time into…possibly another dimension.
  • Suddenly, the rocket reappeared over Moisty Mires, flying in a semi-circle over the area before crossing over into the other dimension.
  • The rocket then reappeared just over Loot Lake and blasted full speed into the sky.
  • When it hit the top of the ‘dome’ that forms the Storm Circle it broke through, leaving a huge crack in the sky.

There was dialogue as the rocket took off. This dialogue may have been:

Voice One: “Zero point oscillator on.”

Voice Two: “Set coordinates.”

Voice One: “Engaging particle accelerator.”

Or something close to this. Meanwhile, when you look up at the crack in the sky it sounds almost like a heart beating. Could the mysterious leviathan actually emerge from the sky?

Here’s the video I took:

You can see more (and better) videos here.

The Live Event Was Brilliant

So this event was amazing, first of all. It was a one-time only live event that millions of players watched (we don’t have exact numbers of players watching in game or on Twitch and YouTube, though Ninja and his squad had half a million concurrent viewers during their stream.)

It went off without a hitch. The servers withstood the massive influx of players. By all accounts, most matches were impressively peaceful, with players not killing one another and choosing instead to watch the rocket go off.

Beyond some longer-than-usual queues and matchmaking times—that really weren’t all that bad—it was an almost flawless event.

After the amazing comet-themed transition from Season 3 to Season 4, it was hard to imagine Epic Games topping themselves. They just did in spectacular fashion. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in a video game.

The rocket blasting off.

Now what?

So what does this mean? Well, that crack in the ‘dome’ could mean all kinds of things. It could mean that this whole thing is some kind of simulation, and this rocket just broke out of the simulation into…the real world?

Or this could be some form of time-travel or inter-dimensional travel, with lots more changes to come. Indeed, I think this is just the beginning of a bunch of new changes. While Moisty Mires didn’t turn into a desert and Tilted Towers was once again spared, who knows what might emerge through the crack? Not to mention the other portals that have popped up where the rocket slid between dimensions.

Also important to note: The rocket itself never actually made impact. It still could. At any point that rocket could crack through the dome again and smash into the map. Or it could reappear and shoot off a bunch of fireworks on the 4th of July. The possibilities are endless.

Some are guessing that this means a new map on the other side of the crack in the dome. That seems unlikely. But we could see major changes to the map nonetheless.

Blast off!

What are your theories about what this rocket launch means for the game? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook. I will be updating this post with more theories, discoveries and other information so stay tuned for that, and thanks for reading!

Keep tuning back for updates as they happen. Expect to see plenty of crazy stuff over the next two weeks—the final two weeks—of Season 4.

Season 5 starts on July 12th.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.