The big live events in Fortnite have now actually become a tradition, regularly attracting huge numbers of players and viewers. However, the finale of Season 5 – and thus the start of Season 6 – changes something in the tried-and-tested formula.
What makes the next event different: On Tuesday evening, the start date of Season 6 was officially announced. At the same time, the final event of Season 5 was presented.
Here, unlike previous events, players will not experience a live event in the true sense.
There is indeed a final event in which
- among other things, the “most elaborate story cutscene” ever is supposed to be included in Fortnite
- players will play the end of Agent Jones’s mission themselves
The difference from previous events is that this will be a pure single-player experience. There will be no interaction with other players, as was customary in the past – everyone is alone.
In addition, this event will not be tied to a specific time. It will be activated for each player as soon as they start the game for the first time in Season 6. And thus, Fortnite is changing its own successful formula somewhat.
Fortnite changes how you experience events – at least once
This is how it used to be: That Fortnite is changing the familiar concept is a bit surprising. After all, the live events of the past successfully attracted players and viewers.
- In 2019, a black hole swallowed the Fortnite world and drew the attention of several million viewers on Twitch, YouTube, and social media.
- The Travis Scott concert in Fortnite reportedly had 12.3 million simultaneous players according to Epic in 2020.
- For the live event “The Device”, Fortnite had to limit the number of participants to maintain stability.
- During the battle against Galactus, Twitch even went down under the pressure.
On platforms like Twitch and YouTube, the live events generated a lot of attention for the game – not to mention that many players also participated in-game. Despite the change, it is conceivable that Fortnite could still achieve this effect with the change to a solo event – while simultaneously solving a few issues.
This is how you can still watch online: Although the event starts for each player at an individual time, there is still a time when it goes online. A world premiere has already been announced that viewers online can follow – more information and a specific time will be announced later.
It is conceivable that players and viewers will still gather at that time to experience the event “live”. However, it is not mandatory. And for players, this could mean an advantage.
This is changing for players: Although players are now going “solo”, they were also somewhat solo during parts of previous events. For example, if you look at a large part of the Galactus event, you can see that there was also little interaction between players.
The advantage is that players definitely cannot miss the event – whether they are sitting at the screen during the premiere time or not. This means they do not have to worry about missing a potentially important point in the story – or simply a fun gaming event.
This also means they are not necessarily dependent on standing in a queue for an hour to ensure they get into the event on the server. This could still be a factor when the premiere happens – but those who join a little later probably won’t have to plan for a waiting time.
What exactly will happen in the event is still unknown – as are the contents of the upcoming Season 6. However, there are clear indications that Batman could play a major role.
