Fortnite followers are actually sure there’s one thing new and mysterious occurring inside the recreation’s basic OG mode — which, it is now clear, is dropping an additional layer of story.
Let’s recap. This previous weekend, Fortnite’s OG mode, which is slowly biking by way of the recreation’s unique seasons, lastly acquired to the battle royale’s first reside occasion orginally seen again in June 2018: the rocket launch. But, this time, issues weren’t fairly the similar.
Whereas billed as one other likelihood to observe the similar iconic reside occasion from 2018, there have been a couple of notable variations. Positive, followers noticed Fortnite’s rocket launch, a mysterious broadcast increase out, and the spaceship disappear into a rift leaving a large crack in the sky. But that crack is now an ominous glowing purple, reasonably than the unique blue — and there have been different, extra delicate modifications too.
This new model of the rocket launch started with a purple rift butterfly showing subsequent to gamers, a first sign that one thing was totally different. Rift butterflies are sometimes blue, with purple presently related in-game with the occasions of the predominant Battle Royale / Zero Construct storyline — and the purple demonic power summoning demons from portals. Is this some form of crossover? Or is purple merely meant to recommend one thing is incorrect?
Eagle-eyed gamers first noticed one thing unusual occurring in Fortnite’s OG mode final month, when the map’s Misplaced-inspired bunkers started flashing a message in Morse code. These bunkers existed round Fortnite’s Island all through its unique incarnation — however famously did little or no. All of a sudden, on this new OG model of the recreation, they had been flashing their lights on and off to spell out a message: “Something is incorrect”.
FORTNITE OG BUNKERS NOW HAVE MORSE CODE 👀
TRANSLATION: “Something is incorrect.” [VIA @FortTory] pic.twitter.com/ECeFCXc1R7
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) June 18, 2025
Fortnite’s tie-in comics in the end revealed these bunkers as belonging to the Imagined Order. One of the predominant antagonists of Fortnite’s lore, the IO secretly ran the unique Fortnite Island as a battleground as a way to defend its supply of energy.
At this level in Fortnite’s unique storyline, gamers had no clue who the IO had been, or what the bunkers had been for. Likewise, gamers had but to study who the Customer was — the rocket’s mysterious pilot — and what him being a member of “The Seven” truly meant.
After all, seeing Fortnite’s OG mode play out in 2025, gamers have all of this context already — and so it is cool to see Epic Video games having some enjoyable — whereas subtly suggesting to gamers that what they’re seeing is happening in a barely totally different department of the Fortnite multiverse.
A Purple Rift Butterfly abruptly appeared and flew into The Customer’s Rocket proper earlier than the occasion, resulting in the Sideways Rift that was created being purple as a substitute of blue.
But I ponder why did the butterfly abruptly seem and why was it purple 🤔 pic.twitter.com/CxXkbVxMYz
— VortexLore (@VortexLoreFN) July 26, 2025
Keep in mind Fortnite’s unique return of its OG mode as a limited-time expertise, which resulted in a remixed model of the recreation’s black gap reside occasion? It was this second, dubbed the Huge Bang, which correctly birthed Fortnite’s a number of realities inside the recreation’s personal lore — giving an in-universe cause for why Fortnite abruptly provided Lego, racing and music offshoots as properly.
So, too, with OG mode — which Epic Video games later made a everlasting providing as properly — the suggestion right here now is this is not merely a look again into the recreation’s previous, however one thing that co-exists and might nonetheless provide contemporary surprises. (It is a neat lore cause for why OG options remixed variations of basic skins like the Customer, too — as they’re from a totally different multiverse actuality.)
What’s subsequent for OG mode? Properly, from this level Fortnite’s storyline actually kicked off, with the sky crack spawning Kevin the Dice, introducing the recreation’s Zero Level macguffin, the IO, the Seven… although how these will all be portrayed in the OG model stays to be seen. For now, mini purple rifts are presently showing and disappearing notable elements of the unique Island — reminiscent of the signal at Lonely Lodge, or the Motel.
THE LONELY LODGE SIGN HAS RIFTED OUT OF THE ISLAND‼️#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/bqfW3HnqaS
— Rezztro (@Rezztro) July 27, 2025
In the meantime, again in the predominant Battle Royale / Zero Construct mode/timeline, the present season’s story is drawing to a definitive shut this weekend in an all-new climactic reside occasion featuring Superman and… a kraken? Look out for that this Saturday, August 2 at 2pm Jap.
Picture credit score: EveryDayFN
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social