Fortnite delays its big end-of-season event by one week

The start of the next season has also been delayed

Fortnite’s upcoming end-of-season live event has been delayed by one week, Epic Games announced today. It will now take place on June 6th at 2PM ET.

Epic began teasing the event, which it is calling “The Device,” last weekend. Ominous countdowns appeared in the game’s lobby and in a screen in the game’s battle pass menu. Mysterious hatches have also appeared in the water near the Agency building in the game, which sits on a central island on the map.

The start of Fortnite’s next season, Chapter 2 Season 3, has also been pushed a week, meaning it will now launch on June 11th. This is the second delay for the start of the new season.

Epic hasn’t specified reasons for the delays, but it could be due to unexpected development setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Epic creative director Donald Mustard noted in a tweet today that the studio has more than 1,000 people working from home on Fortnite.

Despite the pandemic, Epic still managed to pull off a number of events this season, including multiple Travis Scott concerts, a live Diplo concert, and airing a trailer for Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie.

But “The Device” is particularly intriguing, given that it’s the first major narrative-focused event since last year’s black hole event, and hopefully, it’s as exciting as season 4’s rocket launch, the introduction of Kevin the cube or the destruction of Tilted Towers.