Earlier today, developer Epic Games took to Twitter with a very specific tease that could spell something very important. It looks like the popular battle royale game could be headed to China in the near future, if the tweet can be believed. If that’s true, it’s huge news for both Epic Games and Fortnite in general, as China has a massive player base just waiting to be tapped in the near future.
The tweet in question featured an image of the character Jonesy on a passport with a passport stamp to China with the text “The Battle Bus is taking off! Destination, China.” It doesn’t seem to leave much open to interpretation, and seems pretty straightforward with the purpose of this very deliberate message, though that may not be the case, given how notoriously difficult it is to release certain games there.
The Battle Bus is taking off!
Destination, China. pic.twitter.com/UTGHx86RRA
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 20, 2018
If Epic Games plans to release the game in China as some players are speculating, they will likely work with a company that handles localization in the country to make it happen. Imagine Epic Games partnering with Tencent, the very same investment firm that owns 40% of Epic Games and also handles the very same duties for direct competitor PUBG. It would bring a whole new set of difficulties and challenges with it if it happened to be localized in the country, possibly some of which that Epic may not wish to deal with at this juncture.
It’s possible, as some fans have theorized, that the tweet could simply mean that it means a new China-themed map or some sort of new location could be coming, or a Chinese-inspired location is on the horizon. That wouldn’t make a lot of sense when you take the recent meteor findings into consideration, but it would certainly make for an interesting change of pace for the game. Whatever happens, we can be sure a Chinese localization is coming at some point in the future, given how large the player population is over there, after all.