Ever since Fortnite became one of the most successful titles in modern gaming, there's been an almost constant whirlwind of rumors that the game was going to come to an end. Rumors tend to come from an assortment of sources, often as a joke that then spirals out of control.
Is Fortnite closing down?
To date, the answer to this question is an unequivocal “no”. Fortnite isn't shutting down, and Epic hasn't expressed any plans to shut down its most successful project yet. The reason for this is that Fortnite is still a cash cow, played by millions of people every day on just about every gaming platform.
Where do the rumors come from?
Mainly from fake tweets and satirical articles. It's very easy to fake a tweet using programs like Photoshop, so anything that's not a direct retweet from the supposed source should always be taken with a pinch of salt. People also seem to have some degree of difficulty distinguishing between real news sites and satirical sites.
Some prank websites will also be used to host fake stories, but these are inevitably quite poorly written and easy to spot as fake, but some community members will still believe them.
Some of the notable rumors
The image above made the rounds in September 2018, and as you can see, it looks legit. However, an image in a tweet is usually just an image and not the actual tweet for a good reason. The image has been faked to look like a tweet from the official Fortnite account, but a closer look at the Fortnite Twitter timeline reveals that such a tweet does not exist.
Someone thought it would be smart to craft a realistic-looking tweet that makes it look like Epic Games is shutting down its most successful game. Hopefully few people have been fooled, but there always are. It's also not the first time such a fake tweet has appeared online.
In April this year, at the height of the legal battle between Epic Games and its competitor PUBG, a tweet with the following message appeared on social media.
Following legal action against PubG for copyright infringement. We are sorry to inform you that Fortnite Battle Royale will end on May 20, 2018. Save the world will still be in development and we will roll it out as soon as possible. Thank you all for the support.
This tweet was also false, and its impact was so significant at the time that Snopes, the online service specializing in debunking bizarre claims and urban legends, analyzed it and deemed it false.
So fear not, my friend Fortnite players, your favorite battle royale game isn't going anywhere.
