Thanos Is Bringing The Infinity War To FORTNITE
It makes sense that the biggest movie in the world would get a crossover event with the biggest video game in the world. And that’s just what’s happening with Avengers: Infinity War and free-to-play battle-royale phenomenon Fortnite, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Starting tomorrow, Tuesday May 8th, Fortnite will play host to a new game mode entitled Infinity Gauntlet. It’ll function similarly to the existing game - a hundred players are dropped into a large, colourful map and tasked with offing each other in a increasingly limited play space before a timer runs out - only this time, a fully-loaded Infinity Gauntlet will spawn somewhere on the map. Find the Gauntlet, and you become Thanos, “wielding all the power that comes with him.”
Details are scant as to what Fortnite’s Infinity Gauntlet will do exactly, beyond allowing the player to “wield the power of all six Infinity Stones.” I know how I’d design it: make the Gauntlet a single-use item that instantly kills half the players on the map, but that requires a charge-up period during which the player’s location is revealed to everyone else. Transform the player into Thanos, with extra HP, and it becomes a race against time for the rest of the players to take down this potentially lethal tank character before every second player dies. That’s speculation, of course. Hopefully it’s not just a powerful laser cannon or something.
This turducken of a franchise crossover comes as a result of Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo playing and becoming fans of Fortnite during their post-production process on the film. After “stalking” Epic Games creative director Donald Mustard, they got into a conversation about how to bring Thanos into the game, resulting in - hopefully - a tie-in event at least as organic as Solo Solo cups.
Fortnite isn’t the only video game the Mad Titan has invaded, either. The new God of War (Hey, Sony PR reps! Want to respond to your emails? We’d still love to review it!) apparently features a questline wherein players pick up a “Shattered Gauntlet of Ages,” collect six enchantments, and end up wielding a Norse version of the Infinity Gauntlet. It, however, is basically just a powerful laser cannon or something.
Infinity Gauntlet mode hits Fortnite tomorrow on all platforms that can run the game (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and iOS). And unlike a lot of games that reach Biggest Game In The World status, Fortnite is actually super fun, creating situations both tense and hilarious. We’ll see you there.
