Two weekends ago, a one-time in-game event featured a rocket launch and rifts in the space-time continuum, and nothing has been the same on the island since.
You can watch a full cinematic-style recording of the launch, recorded and edited by YouTube filmmaker Enzait Films here:
And now, real-life loot llamas — the game's mascot — have been spotted all over Europe.
Photos of the llamas in London, Barcelona, Cologne, and Warsaw have already been posted on the Fortnite subreddit thread.
It's crazy, we know.
Could it be that the rifts offer a portal between the real-world and the in-game Fortnite universe? Epic Games' latest teaser banner, posted today, seems to imply so.
A leading theory suggests that Season 5 may be desert themed, as evidenced by the appearance of the Durr Burger in the California desert, and the sphynx-looking mask featured in Epic's first teaser poster.
The theory was started by known leakers @TwoEpicBuddies, who claim to have found a bug in the game's code that would imply a new desert map might be coming with the introduction of Season 5.
Looks great. Video will drop in 4 hours! pic.twitter.com/OmnD8rNrR1
— DieBuddies (@TwoEpicBuddies)
July 9, 2018
next slide will load in 15 secondsSkip AdSkip AdOthers have suggested the stage coach, some leaked data files, and a scene from the trailer for Playground Mode could be pointing toward a Wild West theme for Season 5.
Here's the trailer. The very brief scene starts at about 0:17 seconds in.
Unfortunately, neither of these theories seem to explain the meaning of the rifts or why multiple landmarks and llamas are being spotted in the real world.
The good news is we won't have to wait long to know exactly what this all means for the future of Fortnite.
According to a Reddit post made by Epic Games today, there will be a brief downtime beginning at 4 AM Eastern Time (0800 GMT) tomorrow, July 12, before the update kicks in and reveals the theme for Season 5.