Fortnite’s “Party Royale” mode ditches the guns, asks players to “chill”

Enlarge / The Papaya map for Fortnite's "Party Royale" mode features apparent icons for racing, gliding, and a soccer match. (credit: @VastBlastt & @FNBRHQ / Twitter)

If you've played Fortnite with a group of teenagers recently, you probably quickly realized that, for many players, the game is less about killing fellow players and staying alive and more about just hanging out with friends in a shared 3D space. Epic is now explicitly leaning into this use case with a new "Party Royale" mode that asks players to "leave their weapons and [materials] behind."

That description comes from an email sent by Epic to a number of Fortnite content creators in recent days, inviting them to a test of the "experimental and evolving space" starting late Friday evening. Data miners ShiinaBR and Lucas7Yoshi have extracted an expanded description of the limited-time mode, which adds that players will be able to "hang out with friends, play games, perfect your skydive and more. The party's just getting started!"

Dataminers have also extracted an overhead image of a new map for the Party Royale mode, apparently nicknamed "Papaya" in game files. Icons on that map, and variable names found in the code, strongly suggest mini-games based around gliding, races on foot and in vehicles, motorboat challenges, and even a soccer match, as well as "theater" and "hub" spaces for gatherings.

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