Tonight’s Fortnite live event was a mash-up of marketing and spectacle, as the Millennium Falcon, TIE Fighters and John Williams’ classic themes mixed with a holographic Geoff Keighley, a comedy Stormtrooper and a dancing JJ Abrams.
That was if you could log in, of course. Once again, the draw of Fortnite’s live events stretched the game’s server capacity, as well as the ability to log on to the Epic’s PC launcher. For several hours, Epic warned of sign-in issues, even long after event finished. In recompense, all Fortnite owners will be gifted the event’s exclusive TIE Whisperer glider.
Wow! Unprecedented demand to get into Fortnite. We had to delay until 2:10 PM ET to let in more players.
Thanks for your patience, as a thank you, everyone will get the glider!
— Fortnite (@Fortnite) December 14, 2019
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The event itself began with a starship battle in the skies over Fortnite’s island, as players watched the Falcon caught up in a dogfight with a series of TIE Fighters – each of which was ultimately sent crashing to the ground in flames. It was a brilliant introduction – until the Falcon landed, and the event transitioned into a talk show sketch.
Holographic Keighley acted as host to an overly-enthusiastic Stormtrooper actor for several minutes, until director JJ Abrams finally appeared to introduce the thing everyone was here to see: an exclusive clip from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In doing so, he asked Fortnite players to vote on which clip they expected to see. And, as if convinced to choose it by a Jedi, Fortnite’s players picked the “Jedi Mind Trick” option. (I voted “Darth Jar-Jar”.)