One of the most anticipated crossover events in recent Fortnite history delivered in such a truly, ehem, epic way. The tie-in event with the most recent Star Wars film, Rise of Skywalker, gave fans a sneak peek of the much-anticipated end of the Sci-Fi saga. But even before the clip was revealed, an in-game event greeted watchers to a spectacular sight.
Minutes before the event began, the skies of Fortnite were filled with Star Destroyers, with music from Star Wars filling the digital air. The roaring of TIE Fighter could then be heard, and the Empire's space fighters could then be seen flying across the sky, engaging in a chase with the iconic Millennium Falcon. The Falcon easily dispatches the TIE fighters and sends them crashing down across the Fortnite island. It then lands, and from it emerges a Stormtrooper pushing a blue-ish box. Geoff Keighley then appears to host the event, asking players to use emotes to show their reaction towards the in-game events.
The movie's director, JJ Abrams, then appears as his holographic self to introduce the movie and what they're about to see. However, he asks his digital audience what they think he'll be showing. Four platforms before the millennium falcon then light up, and Abrams asked them, through a poll, what they think they were going to see that night. A good majority of the crowd picked "Jedi Mind Trick" (though we personally wanted to see "Darth Jar-jar.") Abrams then confirmed that the audience was right, and promptly proceeded to play the clip.
After the clip was shown, Abrams thanked the audience. However, before leaving the stage, he asked another question: What was their favorite lightsaber color? Fans then used the same four platforms to vote. However, before Abrams can continue, more TIE fighters appeared and began blasting shots towards the Millennium Falcon. The fighter then hurriedly leaves, bringing along its crew. However, the mysterious blue box was left behind. A snippet of Emperor Palpatine's voice then played over.
Fans then opened the box to find a nice little gift: a lightsaber in the color that they chose. Players then immediately descended into impromptu lightsaber battles as they played with Fortnite's newest toy.
After the event, Star Wars-themed challenges became live in the game, with lightsabers and First Order plasma rifles becoming available in-game. The TIE-fighters that crashed early on also became part of the map, with bot First Order troops scouring the area, available to be fought by the players themselves.
Technical difficulties
The event itself could be considered as a wide success, with Fortnite streams having over 120 thousand viewers on Twitch alone. However, there were some technical problems that occurred. Log-in problems were encountered even hours after the event. The Epic Game Store launcher itself was inaccessible, probably due to the massive strain of players wanting to log in. Epic did warn players but gave everyone a nice little gift: the TIE Whisperer glider became available for all players.
