Say Goodbye To Fortnite’s Iconic Map, In 24 Hours It Will Be Gone

Fortnite

Epic

Tomorrow at 2 PM ET, something big is happening in Fortnite. We say that once per season, and the end result is something happening on the map like a meteor hitting, a volcano erupting or a map-spanning monster versus mech fight. Tomorrow will be different.

All the signs are there that this is the last time we’ll be seeing Fortnite’s iconic map in the game, at least for a while, as it looks like it’s definitely being replaced with an entirely new offering. The evidence is stacking up to such a degree it’s overwhelming at this point:

All season long, Epic has been teasing a final event for the map called “The End.”

The entire theme of the season has been a farewell tour to the current map, not adding any big changes when the season launched, but slowly bringing back old areas like Retail Row, Greasy Grove and Dusty Depot as “Rift Zones.”

Data miners have found the names of at least a dozen new locations that are not currently in the game when a new season traditionally only spawns 2-3 new zones at max.

Yesterday, a teaser for Fortnite season 11 leaked on the Italian iOS app store, and showed something that was very clearly a new map full of never before seen landmarks all heralded by a “Chapter 2” banner.

So yeah, this is it. The End, as promised.

Fortnite

Epic

Since Fortnite’s original Battle Royale launch, the map has itself become a character in the game, as have many of its zones. Players may swap skins daily, but the zones became fixtures in the game, as everyone had their favorite landing areas from Pleasant Park to Tilted Towers. New areas would come and go, but this single, evolving map was a core staple of the game.

But yes, it’s time.

Fortnite has added huge chunks to each corner of the map save one, and they’re sort of running out of room now just replacing areas they’ve already replaced once or twice. And you have its competitors out there like PUBG and even Apex Legends that have already brought in new maps to keep things fresh. Fortnite needs an entire new island (if it will be an island) to get players re-engaged and exploring again.

Still, I have a lot of fond memories for the current map. Yes, that sounds kind of weird because this isn’t exactly Skyrim where I’m exploring a big landscape doing quests. And yet I have played countless games on this map, and have written dozens, if not hundreds of guides exploring every inch of the new and old zones. It feels like a sort of video game home, in a way. A violet home where other residents are always shooting at me, but a home all the same. I think most players have their favorite shooter maps from titles like Call of Duty (Nuketown), Counterstrike (de_dust) or Halo (Blood Gulch). Fortnite kind of takes that to a whole new level because every game has been on variations of this map, and it’s core to the game’s identity.

So, you have almost exactly 24 hours to say goodbye to the current map. I don’t want to say that Epic will never bring it back, as they probably will for some special event someday, but it’s really the end of an era, all the same.

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