What's 'Fortnite Battle Royale' Doing For April Fools' Day?

Credit: Epic Games/Paul Tassi

Fortnite Battle Royale.

It's April Fools' Day -- that means time for an unending slew of corporate pranks and limited time gags, maybe tempered just a little bit by the fact that it's Easter as well. April Fools' has a particularly large presence in the gaming world, where developers like to do things like announce fake products or even institute more elaborate limited-time modes. Pokémon GO even started as an April Fools' gag in 2014. It has people wondering about the biggest craze in the gaming world right now -- what's Fortnite Battle Royale going to do for April Fools' Day?

It would be pretty shocking if Fortnite didn't have anything: it's one of the most popular games in the world, and developer Epic Games has developed a reputation for near-constant updates that have hit all the major holidays and then some, with new weapons coming approximately every other week. Given all that, I'd have to imagine that the company has at least something planned for the day, though in a world of metagags not having a gag is a prank of its own kind.

Nothing has happened so far -- Epic usually deploys updates at around 4:00 AM EST, which went by without a peep early this morning. That means that it likely isn't an all-day sort of limited time mode -- people have suggested messing with how the storm moves as a map goes on, making chests explode, and that sort of thing. Nor have we gotten any sort of gag press release from Epic or anything like that, though that's pretty minimal effort as far as April Fools' goes, and not really the way the developer has been playing things with Fortnite.

Update: According to a tweet from Epic, the developer has made some changes to Impulse Grenades and Boogie Bombs. Which... is that it? Seems like there could be more.

One of the dominant theories is that a meteor on the map is going to come down and destroy Tilted Towers, which would definitely be one of the most dramatic ways the developer could handle this whole thing. And there have been some strange suggestions of morse code hints and even datamined assets (possible April Fools' warning on the assets) that point to an impact today: a possible egg inside the comet would dovetail with Easter. In my estimation, the fact that Epic has not yet deployed any sort of gag mode bolsters this theory because it points to a more singular event rather than an all-day joke.

I'm still a bit skeptical, overall. I think that the comet could well destroy Tilted Towers, but I'm not sure it's going to happen today. Or maybe nothing at all will happen? It's hard to say. If you're looking for another gag in the space, RPG Path of Exile has added a Battle Royale mode of its own.

Credit: Epic Games/Paul Tassi

Fortnite Battle Royale.

It's April Fools' Day -- that means time for an unending slew of corporate pranks and limited time gags, maybe tempered just a little bit by the fact that it's Easter as well. April Fools' has a particularly large presence in the gaming world, where developers like to do things like announce fake products or even institute more elaborate limited-time modes. Pokémon GO even started as an April Fools' gag in 2014. It has people wondering about the biggest craze in the gaming world right now -- what's Fortnite Battle Royale going to do for April Fools' Day?

It would be pretty shocking if Fortnite didn't have anything: it's one of the most popular games in the world, and developer Epic Games has developed a reputation for near-constant updates that have hit all the major holidays and then some, with new weapons coming approximately every other week. Given all that, I'd have to imagine that the company has at least something planned for the day, though in a world of metagags not having a gag is a prank of its own kind.

Nothing has happened so far -- Epic usually deploys updates at around 4:00 AM EST, which went by without a peep early this morning. That means that it likely isn't an all-day sort of limited time mode -- people have suggested messing with how the storm moves as a map goes on, making chests explode, and that sort of thing. Nor have we gotten any sort of gag press release from Epic or anything like that, though that's pretty minimal effort as far as April Fools' goes, and not really the way the developer has been playing things with Fortnite.

Update: According to a tweet from Epic, the developer has made some changes to Impulse Grenades and Boogie Bombs. Which... is that it? Seems like there could be more.

One of the dominant theories is that a meteor on the map is going to come down and destroy Tilted Towers, which would definitely be one of the most dramatic ways the developer could handle this whole thing. And there have been some strange suggestions of morse code hints and even datamined assets (possible April Fools' warning on the assets) that point to an impact today: a possible egg inside the comet would dovetail with Easter. In my estimation, the fact that Epic has not yet deployed any sort of gag mode bolsters this theory because it points to a more singular event rather than an all-day joke.

I'm still a bit skeptical, overall. I think that the comet could well destroy Tilted Towers, but I'm not sure it's going to happen today. Or maybe nothing at all will happen? It's hard to say. If you're looking for another gag in the space, RPG Path of Exile has added a Battle Royale mode of its own.

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