In Fortnite Battle Royale, a story has been unfolding since March 2018. Our author Schuhmann says: It all means that zombies are coming for Christmas. Because then the other mode of Fortnite, “Save the World,” will be free.
At first, it was thought to be an event: I still remember how excited everyone was back then. In March 2018, a comet approached the world of Fortnite. That was something extraordinary because, in Fortnite: Battle Royale, it was really all about the game itself, about the matches.
There was no story embedded in it at all.
Before the comet, there was no world around Fortnite: Battle Royale
This is how it was before the comet: The world of Fortnite: Battle Royale was just there. It didn’t need an explanation, no context. The world was a self-contained habitat – without anything around it.
Like a snow globe that you shake, and then it snows.
Suddenly, there was a story element from outside: the comet. Somehow, it put the world of Fortnite into context. There was a “surrounding.”
This is what the players thought: Players at the time saw this story only as “an announcement of a gameplay event.” They believed the comet was a one-time experience. It would come down and destroy Tilted Towers or bring a new map altogether.
This expected change in Fortnite was so significant that Epic built its own event for it. Or so it was thought.
But it was a story: But it happened differently. The comet was just the first part of a larger narrative arc that continues to this day.
After the comet, it simply continued. In Season 4, a story about superheroes and supervillains was told through loading screens. However, this was just a ruse and led nowhere. The superheroes were just actors filming a movie.
From Season 4, there were heroes and villains of the story in skins
Skins suddenly harmonized with the story: At that time, the skins seemed to suddenly give hints about the world and how it would change. Instead of motifs from outside, like John Wick, you could now play as the superhero Carbide, who was also present in the loading screens. He also had a villain, Omega, whom he hunted.
In Season 6, it is the heroine Calamity and the werewolf she hunts.
The skins then became upgradable, providing additional motivation for the game. With the progression of the story, the heroes and their skins also evolved in the loading screens.
Meanwhile, strange things were happening in the world of Fortnite that ran parallel to the “skin story” in the loading screens.
Rockets, comets, and flying island – the story so far
In the last five months, this has happened in Fortnite:
an alien emerged from the comet and launched a rocket (Season 4)
cracks appeared in the sky, forming a space cube that then fell into Loot Lake (Season 5)
Players are now wondering: What is it all leading to?
Why is Fortnite doing all this?
This could be how it was: Fortnite Battle Royale was born out of necessity in 2017. Epic had the game built within two months by the Unreal Tournament team after it became clear that Fortnite: Save the World would not be a hit.
It was obvious that Epic was orienting itself towards the gameplay of the then-current hit PUBG to appear on all consoles and platforms as quickly as possible.
Epic was in a hurry: Originally, Epic had simply not invented a context for the world of Fortnite Battle Royale. There was no room for that – 2017, Epic had other concerns. It was important to find a functioning game principle.
In the summer back then, Epic apparently didn’t think about the setting: They brought in “generic” skins, fantasy figures like the Black Knight, or pop culture references like John Wick.
Fortnite needed more starting in March 2018: When the comet arrived, in March 2018, Epic already knew that Battle Royale was a hit. And a mode that needed a “context” related to the rest of the game: a surrounding.
What were all the writers and story creators supposed to do, that they were being paid for, if the biggest game in the world had no story and no background?
Fortnite Battle Royale is the prequel to Save the World
This is what the story revolves around: I think the whole story of Battle Royale is about integrating the new mode into the world of the “old” mode. Merging the two worlds.
In Fortnite Battle Royale, players experience what the world was like before the zombie apocalypse that players fight against in Save the World.
Therefore, everything that has happened in Battle Royale in recent months is marked with the color purple.
This is what is currently happening: Right now, the flying island is creating “crater landscapes” in which volcanoes send a purple corruption into the world.
In Save the World, the husks are former humans who are possessed by a “corruption” – they are also purple.
Save the World with Season 7 then free just before Christmas
Currently, there is a concluding event in Save the World called “Under Pressure.” This event is supposed to prepare players for the “exciting things that will happen soon.”
It looks like Fortnite Save the World will become free with the start of Season 7 – just before Christmas. Epic will thus keep its promise to release the currently paid mode as a free-to-play title in 2018.
Is Epic already transitioning Save the World to free-to-play in the background?
This is what we can expect now: In Battle Royale, the world could change further in such a way that the “corruption” spreads in the coming weeks – this would also fit with the Halloween event.
Then in Fortnite, Halloween will be even crazier and more mysterious than usual – no problem.
The question remains of what else will happen in Save the World. There has been relatively little going on in recent months. Hopefully, Epic will take the time for a final push and bring new content or solve current problems.
However, it might be that relatively little has happened in Save the World in recent months because Epic has been using resources to create a new free-to-play model.
This is why it’s clever: If they simply made Save the World free, hardly anyone would notice. However, if Epic does it in such a way that every Battle Royale player is directly confronted with the zombies in the game, then the curiosity to try out the new, soon-to-be-free mode will increase.
We can be curious about how exactly Epic will shape the transition in the coming months and what else the “Flying Island” has planned.
Is all of this confirmed? No, it is not. These are speculations and conclusions. Epic has never explained what the story is about. However, it still states in the FAQ that Save the World should become free by 2018.
Fortnite consists of two games, the free battle royale and the still paid original game 'Save the World'. In battle royale mode, up to 100 players are dropped o...
