Fortnite is no stranger to pulling real-world figures and media into its virtual space. Travis Scott, Will Smith, LeBron James, and Ariana Grande are only a few real-life superstars whohave appeared in the popular battle royale. However, none of those were as controversial as Epic’s decision to bring Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington to Fortnite.
Time Studios Presents March Through Time in Fortnite is a new mode that places players in Washington, where they can witness Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech and learn the civil rights history behind it in a new way. I found its heart to be in the right place, but the mode itself doesn’t sit right with me.
Let’s start by looking at Fortnite as a whole. The game began as a simple zombie survival mission and evolved into a media juggernaut once it transformed into a unique battle royale experience.
Players from across the globe queue up in hundreds of matches every day where they can play as Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty, the famous streamer Ninja, or even Ariana Grande. They take up arms to kill everyone on the island and be the last one standing, claiming Victory Royale.
That’s not all Fortnite is anymore, however. Epic Games is one of many companies that is chasing what is known as the “metaverse” with their game. In layman’s terms, that entails making the game into somewhat of a virtual reality world where players can hang out and go to different events with one another.
The two largest examples of this are Ariana Grande and Travis Scott’s virtual concerts, which made millions of dollars. There are also smaller-scale concerts, tons of promotional tie-ins, like an MCU-inspired Thanos mode, and movie trailer premieres. Of course, the next natural step is to move toward the educational sphere, right?
https://twitter.com/Java_jigga/status/1430933538245734405
Take everything I said that Fortnite is earlier, then look at the video above. Now tell me if something seems odd about adding a Martin Luther King Jr.-focused history lesson on civil rights to a game where the Joker can dab. Thankfully, Epic saw the response and disabled nearly all emotes for the MLK event, but unsurprisingly, it still doesn’t fit the typical bill for the game.
What Epic set out to do here was a great thing. In fact, I’d even call it a very bold effort to educate children on such an important matter where many schools continue to fail, but this is a case of not being able to have it both ways.
Epic is chasing the idea of the metaverse — an all-digital world — but Fortnite‘s capitalist ambitions get in the way of itself. When you open Fortnite, the first thing you’re greeted with is the newest trendy skin you can pay $8 for with your credit card. You can pay to use Doctor Doom while dancing to a hit Doja Cat song. While waiting for games to start, you’re greeted by ridiculous loading screens featuring Rick and Morty fighting aliens in a chaotic landscape. These set a tone that just doesn’t match what was explored in the March Through Time project, which raises the question of whether a serious metaverse has a feasible future in Fortnite.
I find educating through an enjoyable space to be a great concept and, to be fair, according to social media, it was a success for many players.
https://twitter.com/RuthTweetX/status/1431701935766347782
I just can’t imagine this being a continuous thing in the future that can be taken seriously. It just gives me the mental image of taking a clown puzzle and forcing a Van Gogh piece right in the middle to call it a lesson.
Then again, maybe we should instead pull focus away from the branding critique and instead applaud Epic for giving children the chance to learn an important lesson in a comfortable space. It’s not like sitting in a dull classroom or going to a fancy museum stopped us from seeing who could yell “penis” the loudest without getting in trouble. Maybe this isn’t so different.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.