Fortnite map wiped out by black hole to mark end of Season 10

It is not clear when or even if the game will return

Related video: Fortnite season 10 official trailer (Fortnite)

Fortnite has been destroyed by a huge asteroid, and replaced with a black hole.

The in-game event wiped out the entire map and means that its millions of players are now unable to get into the game at all.

Instead, they have been encouraged to watch a mysterious live stream of a black hole.

The asteroid collision marked the end of Season 10. Developers Epic Games tend to mark the close of the game’s “seasons” with major events that can be watched within the game.

But it has led to a variety of questions about Season 11. Usually, such updates bring tweaks to the map or other alterations to the game – rather than wiping out the entire world and leaving it impossible to play.

It is not clear when or even if the game will return. (It is almost certain that it will, however, since Epic has made billions of dollars through the game.)

In the meantime, players have been encouraged to tune in to a wildly popular live stream which just shows the black hole. At some point, that will presumably reveal what is going to happen in Season 11.

Fortnite deleted everything else from its Twitter account and gave no more information about what had happened to the game.

Fans had expected Season 10 to come to a dramatic close, since Epic teased that there would be a major “The End” event over the weekend. It was also marked by a countdown timer which appeared within the game.

Players who were in the world when that timer reached its end saw a huge meteor shower fall on the map and seemingly destroy all of it. Those players then fell out of the world and the screen was replaced with the black hole – which continues to be all that is left of the game.

[14 October 2019 15:13 · Andrew Griffin]

[14 October 2019 15:21 · Andrew Griffin]

This tweet is a joke, obviously – but it's a commonly shared point

Fortnite had a rough time through Season 10, with various people complaining about the game being broken and threatening to quit. You could have expected that this whole affair would lead to more of that frustration, as people are forced to wait to even play the game at all.

But people seem to be not all that annoyed, as a rule! Some are even happy and excited!

(We'll have to see how long that lasts.)

[14 October 2019 16:05 · Andrew Griffin]

Fortnite isn't the only thing not working today. Snapchat is down too!

[14 October 2019 18:06 · Andrew Griffin]

There's now just under an hour until 7pm UK time, or 2pm on the east coast. This feels like a time that you might finally unveil what's hiding behind the black hole, maybe? But who knows!

[14 October 2019 18:25 · Andrew Griffin]

The trailer for the new Fortnite map and world have leaked, as well as what will play host to it: Fortnite Chapter 2, season 1.

[14 October 2019 18:26 · Andrew Griffin]

Here it is. Avoid if you don't want to see spoilers!

[14 October 2019 18:28 · Andrew Griffin]

(That video – like all the others – is very likely to disappear very quickly. It probably has already. All of the videos are getting taken down very quickly for copyright violations.)

[14 October 2019 18:30 · Andrew Griffin]

But here are the salient points from it:

• The graphics seem to be improved
• The world has completely changed
• You can do entirely new things, like swim and carry teammates.

All very much unconfirmed of course, but the trailer did look legitimate.

[14 October 2019 18:35 · Andrew Griffin]

Here's a write-up of the leak.

[14 October 2019 18:39 · Andrew Griffin]

The leaked video still offers no clue about when all of this will arrive, of course. Epic has still officially gone dark, and hasn't confirmed when or even whether the game will be coming back.