Epic Games plan to take Fortnite "beyond battle royale" with new open-world mode

Epic Games has unveiled bold plans to take their flagship title Fortnite “beyond battle royale” off the back of a new “open-world” game mode, following in the footsteps of rival Apex Legends and their competitive “Arenas” playlists.

The Fortnite publishers have been quite vocal in the past few years about their desire to expand their battle royale beyond its original, and now very much iconic last-man-standing game mode.

According to Fortnite’s newly leaked Stipulated Exhibits Documents, which were officially revealed as part of the ongoing Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit, there’s plans behind the scenes to make an “open-world simulation sandbox mode,” in a similar vein to Grand Theft Auto’s sprawling Los Santos multiplayer map.

Fortnite insider HYPEX tweeted the news late on May 3.

“Epic will go beyond Battle Royale [next season], and give us an open-world simulation sandbox,” the Fortnite leaker revealed. He also hypothesized the new mode may be “a replacement for Battle Lab” in future seasons.

Ironically, this same claim ⁠— to “go beyond battle royale” ⁠— was the slogan Respawn just rolled out for their latest Apex Legends season, Legacy.

The plan, which Epic has reportedly had bubbling away at their Cary studios in North Carolina for some time now, also evokes Minecraft and more recently Roblox’s popular game builder engine with its “open-world” designs.

Perhaps the closest comparison though, fairly, is Fortnite’s co-operative title, “Save the World”. While Epic’s original Fortnite release is classically dubbed as an “open-world” adventure, the free-to-play game is actually closer to Left 4 Dead 2 or Call of Duty: Zombies in nature. This newly-leaked playlist will lean towards Minecraft or Valheim, insiders have suggested.

Leaks from this week also seem to confirm these recent reports.

Newly uncovered images depict a campsite in a large, Fortnite-style forest. Three spawn spots, including for “Assault Rifles,” “Makeshift Bows,” and “Primal Bows,” appear in one still. A large forest ‘biome’ appears in another.

HYPEX also originally shared several “Sandbox” images on Apr. 27, including tree & camp codes, and a “weird thing to spawn random objects with a seed.”

Even better, this new “open-world” mode is just around the corner.

As Dexerto understands, Epic has already loaded a number of the new mode’s codes and elements into the battle royale backend. This suggests a release date could be imminent; expect an announcement sometime soon, now that the blockbuster Apple lawsuit has led to it leaking early.

Also leaked from the Epic vs Apple lawsuit; scrapped The Rock, the Hunger Games, and Arianna Grande crossovers, and an upcoming Naruto skin release.

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