Fortnite season 11 event ended with a cosmic explosion and now the game is gone – CNET

After a delay of a week, Fortnite season 10 ended Sunday with The End event that would have introduced season 11. But “The End” turned out to be more literal than anyone could have imagined, as the game was no longer playable after the event started. 

An explosive season-ending event caused the destruction of the island and apparently the game itself, and it’s not playable at time of writing. 

It looks like Fortnite has ended. For now.

What happened?

Like in season 4, the event started off with a rocket launching into the sky and exploding to create rifts. Like in the earlier event, the rocket went out of one rift into another. This time, however, there were several more rockets. The spacecrafts then flew around into multiple rifts again and again until they all entered one final rift. 

After a moment of calmness, the rockets appeared above the meteor over Dusty Depot. One by one they entered another rift below the meteor. Dozens of more rockets than previously seen appeared only to slam into this final rift, which caused the rift to grow. The meteor that was frozen over Dusty Depot throughout season 10 began to move, and then it, too, disappeared into the now large rift.  

For a moment, the meteor and rockets were gone. 

Then the music of the event began to swell and far above the island was one giant rift. Players were then sent into the air, floating uncontrollably. Finally, out of the rift, six rockets and the meteor reappeared. The rockets changed directions to fly off in different directions while the meteor crashed into the singularity located at Loot Lake. The dome surrounding the area attempted to shield the island, but it failed as the meteor finally smash into the island as it did at the end of season 4 but with much more of an impact. 

An explosion occurred when then began sucking in everything. The island, the Battle Bus and even the players were soon gone in a blink. 

All that was left was a black hole.

The official Fortnite Twitter account and website only show the black hole. The game’s Instagram account shows the same. 

Since then, developer Epic deleted all of the more than 12,000 tweets on the Fortnite Twitter account, aside from the link to the stream of the black hole. 

The Fortnite YouTube channel has a livestream of the event that shows the explosions and is currently streaming just the singularity. More than 1 million people tuned in to watch the event unfold on Twitch. 

During the stream, keen-eyed viewers saw a set of numbers appear around the black hole: 146, 11, 15, and 62. 

Some have since tried to decipher these mystical digits and come up with their own season 11 theories. One person entered the numbers in Google maps and it appears to be a location of some sort of “crab rave.” 

Even Twitch got into the fun with a tweet offering some theories. 

Some Fortnite data miners speculated something might happen at 5:07 p.m. ET/ 2:07 p.m. PT. Since then, more numbers appeared near the black hole. So far, the numbers are: 11, 146, 15, 62, 87, 14, 106, 2 and 150.

One Twitter user has a theory on what the numbers mean. In the Fortnite season 10 Overtime challenges, players had to gather a set of recordings from The Visitor, the antagonist of Fortnite. Using the numbers as a guide, the corresponding words in the monologue from the character make the phrase “I was not alone. Others were outside the Loop.” The story for Fortnite season 10 is the island is in a time loop and the Visitor is one of several entities who are trying to stop it. 

he visitors audio… 11th word. 146th word. 15th word. 62nd word. 87th word. 14th word. 106th word. 2nd word. 150th word. “I was not alone. Others were outside the Loop.”

— aaobi (@Thooming) October 13, 2019

Another set of numbers appeared near the singularity: 11, 146, 15, 62, 87, 14, 106, 2, 150, 69, 146, 15, 36, 2, 172, 8, 160, and 65. A data miner review The Visitor’s recordings and now the hidden meaning of the numbers is “I was not alone. Others were outside the Loop. This was not calculated. The moment is now inevitable.”

This is the complete text the numbers mean:

“I was not alone. Others were outside the Loop. This was not calculated. The moment is now inevitable.”

— ShiinaBR – Fortnite Leaks (@ShiinaBR) October 13, 2019

Epic also pulled the plug over at Twitch. A visit to the Fortnite page comes up blank, as the entire category of Fortnite no longer exists. 

Players who try to play the game are greeted with a technical difficulties screen and then nothing. However, one player did discover that Epic added a little secret. During the screen showing the singularity, players can enter a Konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start). A mini-game similar to the classic Galaga will begin where players can shoot Durrr Burger heads for a high score. 

It appears some concerned gamers reached out to Sony about their game. The Ask PlayStation Twitter account tweeted Sunday about the “Fortnite Blackout” and that players’ inventory and V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-game currency, are still available. 

Epic is aware of the Fortnite Blackout. Please be assured that your inventory items and V-Bucks are secure. Please reach out to Epic for more details.

— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) October 13, 2019

It also appears that Fortnite: Save the World — the non-battle-royale mode where players survive against waves of enemies — is no longer available for purchase on various platforms. There’s speculation that Epic will make this mode available for free instead of the $39.99. 

You can no longer purchase #Fortnite Save the World.

It seems like StW is coming to the Nintendo Switch as well, although it hasn’t been confirmed by Fortnite themselves.

— Guille-GAG // Fortnite Leaks (@Guille_GAG) October 13, 2019

How long the game will stay down is unclear, but this is an unprecedented move for a game this popular. 

What about season 11?

The next season of Fortnite will still happen. Epic released multiple updates about next season including adding bots for players to use for training. Since this is a holiday weekend in the US, Columbus Day, Epic may have something for those staying home Monday.

The most likely scenario is that Fortnite season 11 will start on Thursday, Oct. 17. Thursdays are the standard starting days for the seasons. 

However, look at the code on the Fortnite website, one Twitter user was able to figure out that the event may last until 6 a.m. ET/3 a.m. PT Tuesday. 

One of the Fortnite data miners tweeted there was an update sent to iOS devices that was larger than 5GB. This is a significant update, hinting that the Fortnite Blackout may actually come to a close. 

On Friday, the Italian App Store leaked the supposed next iteration of the game, Fortnite Chapter 2. It appears there will be a new map, default skins and boats. 

SEASON 11 LEAK:

Apparently Apple uploaded the first Season 11 image too early to the App Store! This image says something about “Chapter 2” of Fortnite and we’re clearly seeing a new map! pic.twitter.com/cStR1F6O8Z

— ShiinaBR – Fortnite Leaks (@ShiinaBR) October 11, 2019

Originally published Oct. 7 and updated as new information is revealed.