- Fortnite’s Chapter 2 Season 2 starts this Thursday, Feb. 20.
- Developer Epic Games is teasing the new update with cryptic tweets, real-world ads, and ARG elements.
- It’s Fortnite back to it’s very best.
After months of relative silence, Epic Games’ well-oiled marketing machine has sprung back to life with teases for Fortnite’s Chapter 2 Season 2. Cryptic tweets, real-world ads, and ARG elements – it’s all reminiscent of Fortnite at its very best.
Back in Back in summer 2018, Fortnite landmarks popped up in real-world locations such as the California desert to tease Season 5. A real-life ‘agent’ dished out cards leading to coordinates in France. Lamas popped up in European capitals. The whole thing was a delightful puzzle that players followed with baited breath when Fortnite was at the height of its popularity.
Fortnite Twitter Tease
The Season 2 tease began with a tweet sent out by the official Fortnite Twitter handle yesterday. It included an image sporting a golden hand print with the message ‘Transmission Intercepted,’ and the date 02/20/20. The text of the tweet itself featured the ‘Transmission Intercepted’ message alongside redacted text.
Three tweets have followed since, each time unveiling a portion of the redacted text. The latest one, authored around 10 hours ago, reads as follows;
Transmission Intercepted FN.CH02.S02 Origin == Au 022020
A masked man – referred to in the latest image as a ‘henchmen’ in multiple languages – has replaced the golden hand print. Increasing the brightness of the last image also reveals what appears to be a new Fortnite map location.
Real-World Billboards
Alongside, billboards advertising Fortnite have sprung up across the globe. Players have spotted them in the US, Japan, France, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Poland, Mexico, and Russia. Each one features the Fortnite logo stamped with the mysterious golden handprint and redacted text revealing only a phone number.
Calling the numbers leads to an answerphone message. The US audio shares the following;
Agency recruitment drive is a go. Happy hunting agents. Agents, oil rig operation is confirmed.
It then ends with what sounds like a cat struggling to cough up a furball.
The audio message differs depending on the country. For example, the German number lists what appear to be map coordinates. FNLeaks has cooked up an image showing a selection of the messages. It’s all agents and secret missions.
In the Fortnite game itself, golden items are popping up across the map, keeping to the color scheme laid out in the tweets and billboards.
While Fortnite players scramble to piece together Epic’s latest large scale tease, we won’t have to wait all that long for a definitive answer. As previously confirmed by Epic Games, Season 2 comes to life this Thursday, Feb. 20.
The teases are a refreshing change of pace after months of inactivity. They do well to remind us why the world fell in love with Fortnite in the first place.
This article was edited by Samburaj Das.
Last modified: February 18, 2020 1:00 PM UTC
