A Giant, Mysterious Cube Just Appeared in 'Fortnite' and It Closed the Rift

Last season had an epic rocket launch that ripped open the skies above the Fortnite: Battle Royale island, and this season that same rift just spat out a creepy purple cube before closing for good.

At about 5 p.m. Eastern on Friday evening, a new event transformed the state of Fortnite as we know it. After Thursday’s version 5.30 update to the game, the huge rift portal in the sky turned purple and random lightning strikes began hitting random locations. But today, all of that lightning concentrated on a single location that seemingly closed the portal for good and left a creepy purple cube near the western edge of Paradise Palms.

Here’s what went down:

Any players that try to strike the purple cube with their pickaxe get blasted back with a blast of energy, so this is totally new territory for this game world. This otherworldly object reminds me of the Sphere — from the Michael Crichton novel and the movie adaptation starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson. In that story, the Sphere was an unexplained alien phenomenon that influenced the world in unpredictable ways. Could it be that this new cube will have similar effects on the world of Fortnite?

It’s unclear right now what the cube’s ultimate purpose is or how it might relate to Season 6, but given the timing, this seems like the huge event that’ll reshape the map for next season. At the very least, this is a huge new conspiracy that’ll keep player’s guessing.

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