Jetpacks Are Coming to Fortnite, Although Release Date Is Uncertain
Epic has announced that jetpacks will be coming to the massively successful battle royale game Fortnite. Players were notified in-game of the coming addition.
It’s safe to assume the update will go live as early as March 9, as Epic usually posts announcements around a week prior to launch. The update image has a yellow background, which could be a sign that they are a legendary drop, although this still isn’t certain.
People are already speculating on the game’s subreddit, suggesting that it could be a portable version of the jump pad. Others are more hopeful for completely air-based combat.
Fortnite is a zombie survival game that sends players hunting for resources and building their home base, which they must defend. However, it comes as both a paid Save the World version and a free Battle Royale mode. The latter is now handled by a completely separate team, which includes lead systems designer Eric Williamson.
“Since we launched Battle Royale at the end of September last year, to hear people say we’re basically one of the biggest, if not the biggest Battle Royale games in the western world in terms of numbers of player is amazing,” he said. “We’re really excited about the number of players and how much they like the game.”
The jetpack could add a different dynamic to the game, much like the way the fired rocket (unexpectedly) did when players realized they could ride it across the map.
“We had no idea that was coming,” Williamson said “The first time we saw it we were like, ‘Oh crap.’ Then we watched it, and we saw that there was a real risk for the reward, and we thought, ‘That’s pretty neat.’”
The one thing that isn’t panned, though, is vehicles.
“We talked a bunch about vehicles and pros and cons,” he said. “But we don’t have a need to add vehicles to get around the map because our travel times allow you to get mostly wherever you want to go. When we discuss vehicles, we talk about trying things with unique functionality and make it not just about going from point A to point B. That’s the extent of it.”