Something Strange Just Appeared On The Fortnite Map

What's in the box?! That's exactly what Fortnite players want to know after the latest series of mysterious in-game events has resulted in a massive purple cube dropping onto the popular battle royale game's map. Given Epic's track record with the game, we're guessing something major is about to go down, likely leading directly into Fortnite's next season of play.

It turns out a pretty good way to steal headlines during a massive games convention like Gamescom is to have an equally massive surprise pop up in your game. The most recent season of in-game activities kicked off in Fortnite several weeks back, with tears in space and time mashing a whole bunch of themes together while simultaneously completely changing the map. In recent days, similar tears in the sky started spewing lightning onto the map, specifically onto the desert sector of square H9, according to a report from Polygon.

Since nothing in Fortnite is unintentional or random, folks started paying careful attention to the timing of the lightning, noting that it appeared to be counting down to something. The lightning would strike at a set pace, eventually destroying a cactus on that sector of the map. At a certain point, the rate of lightning strikes would increase, continuing its rhythmic assault on the desert landscape.

It seems like the lightning may have been clearing a path, as the weekend kicked off with a massive purple cube dropping onto the map. Folks have noted lots of interesting behavior concerning the mystery box, including the fact that it will grant you shield energy if you stand close to it. Get too close or attack it, though, and the cube will lash out with a damaging bolt, potentially eliminating the player. What's extra interesting is that, if a player is eliminated in this fashion, strange runes will pop up in the event feed where you typically see messages about which players have been eliminated. Those runes seem to be the same as runes that can be seen pulsing on the surface of the mysterious cube.

Given the escalation of activity and the timing of the cube's arrival, players are now speculating that something major is going to happen in Fortnite, possibly today. So while other developers are trying to impress Gamescom attendees with fresh trailers and floor shows, Epic has everyone glued to Fortnite, either playing or watching streams, to see what might happen next. We'll be curious to see what, if any, impact this has on the ongoing PAX West Fortnite tournament, which is set to run through next weekend. But, again, the timing of that tournament seems very intentional, considering how much buzz this is all now generating.

You're welcome to leave your predictions concerning the ominous box in the comments below, though we feel it's pretty obvious that Epic is gearing up to reveal the next season of Fortnite. If said season is to include a rumored new game map, this would certainly be a great weekend to pull back the curtain completely.