It doesn’t look like Fortnite will keep its popular OG mode once the event concludes this weekend. Fans are split on whether it should stay, or be retired.
Fortnite OG is a short-run event for Epic’s world-beating battle royale title that played on player nostalgia. The mode brought Fortnite‘s original Chapter 1 map and several classic items out of storage for the first time since 2018. Its return was a massive moment, which has seen its (considerable) fortunes flagging year-on-year as its player base ages. The weekend that Fortnite OG arrived, the game smashed several of its own records. Player counts peaked at a whopping, absolutely unheard-of 44.7 million total players.
This is why the notion that Epic would pull the mode down and put it back in the vault at the end of the week comes as a surprise. One would think it would be eager to keep that substantial gravy train rolling. Not so, according to several reliable leakers connected to Epic.
Epic “never planned” for Fortnite OG to be a separate mode
Frequent leaker NotPaloleaks posted earlier this morning confirming that they had heard Epic was not planning to keep the mode. The translation of their tweet reads: “For those wondering: Fortnite never planned to leave #FortniteOG as a separate mode. A while ago I learned that the mode disappears completely on Saturday, unless they have changed their mind.”
Fellow leaker HypeX echoed the story.
The fan response on social media shows a clear desire for Fortnite OG to remain in the game as its own bespoke mode. Though there are a handful of voices eager for Epic to let go of the game’s past and move forward, the overwhelming majority would seem to prefer that Epic not leave it behind. Epic might never have planned for OG to be this popular, but maybe it should have. There is precedent for it.
Zero Build, and the argument for just leaving it in the game
The idea that Epic could change its mind isn’t entirely out of the question. When it introduced the Zero Build mode as a limited-time event last year, which removed the game’s complex and divisive building system for players that weren’t into it, the player response was so positive that Epic made it a full-time addition to the game’s standard playlists. It gave players options: those who weren’t interested in the building mechanic now had a mode to focus on raw gunplay. Given the response, Epic could change course on Fortnite OG just as easily.
And if it doesn’t, I’m sure the community will happily fill the Creative mode with meticulous recreations of the OG map to fill the void.
Fortnite‘s one-time-only Big Bang event, its first live event in over a year, begins this coming Sunday. You can find kick-off times for Australia and New Zealand right over here.
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