Fortnite Battle Royale comes outta nowhere

After a 2.4GB update randomly popped up this evening on my Fortnite client, I knew this was larger than your ordinary patch. What I didn’t expect was a brand new game mode, Fortnite Battle Royale, to be added to the mix.

While Fortnite has had a solid start with its early access, already releasing the Survive the Storm update just a couple of weeks ago, it seems like they are already building even more game modes behind the scenes, with this particular mode inspired by other battle royale type games such as the very popular (and on trend) PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

The mode is an online 1 vs 100 deathmatch, with the electric field shrinking as the mode progresses, forcing you into closer quarters with your enemies. While very familiar for anyone who has played PUBG, this also marks the first time in Fortnite’s short history where players have been able to actually shoot and cause damage to each other, as opposed to working cooperatively to destroy the husks.

The difference, of course, is that this is Fortnite – so you can harvest materials, loot treasure and build to your hearts content, in an effort to survive the longest and be the last one standing. It’s worth noting that progress doesn’t carry across between Fortnite’s main progression game and the new Battle Royale, so this will act as a seperate entity altogether.

With PUBG not launching onto consoles until later in the year on Xbox One, Fortnite could be a great option for Xbox One and PS4 players who have been curious about this style of game mode.

While officially launching on September 26th, Fortnite Battle Royale is playable now for those of you who want to give it a crack. Full patch notes and info on the new game mode here.