Hot on the heels of yet another delay to the launch of Fortnite’s highly-anticipated Chapter 2 Season 3, a promotional snafu appears to have spilled the beans on what players can expect earlier than intended.
In the wake of the delay, which pushes back the launch of Season 3 to June 11th, Sony seemingly missed the news and inadvertently updated the PlayStation Store page for the popular battle royale shooter with a new icon soon than planned. We can excuse the blunder given Chapter 2 Season 3 was set to launch this week.
Although fairly innocuous at first glance, the icon appears to tease one of the most prominent new additions coming to Fortnite next season. The image depicts the battle royale’s iconic battle bus floating above an expanse of open-water with what appears to be the outline of a palm tree-lined deserted island in the distance.
Unsurprisingly, Sony quickly replaced the image, but this being the internet, the news was invariably already out in the open. In tandem, the sea theme backs up the Fortnite community’s theories that the game is on the cusp of taking a turn for the nautical.
Fans widely expect a massive flood to submerge large swathes of the map, pointing to teases in Fortnite promotional material dating back almost a year. A short video for the Desert Island Flare included the same battle bus floating above the water, a similar deserted island, and a crate stamped with 1106, i.e. June 11th.
While the date is certainly intriguing, it’s likely a very serendipitous coincidence as Epic Games could not have planned so far ahead, especially if we consider the successive delays to Chapter 2 Season 3.
In recent weeks, puddles have appeared in-game, data miners have obtained swimming animations by plundering Fortnite’s code, and load screens hinting at the arrival of diving suits have popped up online. There’s very little to suggest players are reading this wrong.
With a shift to the waters almost an inevitability at this point, we don’t have long at all to get firm confirmation – June 11th is just over a week away.