Our author Patrick Freese and hundreds of thousands of other Fortnite players have been truly pranked by Epic Games. And it was so genius that you can’t even be mad.
What did Epic do? Epic Games published a post on Twitter that immediately confused me:
It was this typical “I liked a YouTube video and I’m now automatically sharing it in my Twitter feed”.
I expected a cool best-of video from Fortnite players, a special map from the community like this popular Counter-Strike map, or something else crazy from the Fortnite universe. Instead, the preview showed a polar bear and the text:
“I liked a video on YouTube: See how this bear makes the most unusual of friends”.
In my thoughts: Wow, it seems the person responsible for the Twitter account at Epic Games forgot to log out. They liked a video and didn’t realize that now 9.8 million Fortnite followers see what videos they liked. Ouch!
But curiosity played a role for me too. So I clicked on the video. It must be sweet. Who will the polar bear find as a friend? Maybe a cute cat? See for yourself.
Why was that so genius? “Rickrolling” is probably one of the oldest memes that the internet has brought us. The background is that you pique someone’s curiosity on the internet to click on a link. Something like: Check it out, a first song from the new “Billie Eilish” album has been leaked and the link leads to the song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.
This internet joke is often played. Even by YouTube itself. In 2008, YouTube redirected all homepage videos to the aforementioned video of Rick Astley (via wired.com)
The action by Epic is so genius because you expect this joke more from individual users and not from the people developing one of the best online shooters of 2020.
The prank caught some Fortnite fans off guard. The video has already over 485,000 views on YouTube. More than 62,000 thumbs up and over 3,800 thumbs down.
The whole thing is also continued by Epic Games in the game. The video from @Hypex shows how Fortnite promotes an “OP outfit” in the game. With a legendary rocket launcher and free shield potions. When you click on the offer, a surprise awaits:
Why is Epic Games doing this? With this action, they probably wanted to promote the new dance that you can now buy in the game. For 500 V-Bucks, or about 5 euros, you can get the new “Never Gonna” emote that lets you dance like Rick Astley in the music video. The music also plays.
How are players reacting? The reactions on Twitter are delightful and show that Epic really caught some players off guard with the prank.
- YouTuber Sky Williams writes “I am angry”
- Nicks, a Fortnite player for the eSports team Luminosity writes “I just got Rickrolled by Fortnite…”
- Benjyfishy from Team NRG writes “LOOOOL FUCK OFF”
- Fortnite streamer NickEh30 writes “Please more memes and thank you”
- Fortnite pro Myth writes “okay, I’m leaving”
- Streamer DrLupo writes “ARE YOU KIDDING ME”
What do you think of Fortnite’s action?
