Artist who faked Fortnite Season 2 map ‘leaks’ explains why they did it

Fortnite players might have been expecting some of the most explosive map changes ever seen in the battle royale game following an apparent Season 2 leak, but it turns out that the whole thing was a hoax. 

Epic Games have confirmed that the next major update will roll out on February 20, the 11.50 patch, although there’s been little mention about what could be set to change when this first season – the longest in history – finally draws to a close.

Just like any ordinary leak, false information spread like wildfire in the game’s community on January 26, featuring what was claimed to be a trailer image and a snapshot at map changes. Basically, it suggested Steamy Stacks was going to explode and impact several destinations in the process.

However, the person who made the fake leak has come forward and explained not just how they did it, but why.

KinaKingy, Reddit

Here’s just one of the fake leaked images KinaKingy had shared to Reddit.

As mentioned, there will have been a tremendous amount of time between the beginning of Chapter 2 and the start of Season 2 in the free-to-play game, which not only means the game’s developers have had free time to put together plans for new updates.

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But, clearly, members of the community have had time to make their concepts look like the real thing as well. Reddit user KinaKingy, who claims to be responsible for the material made in the apparent leak, shared a video on January 27 to show people that none of it was official material.

A voice reader in the video said: “Hi, sorry if any of you guys thought this was real and will get disappointed by this. The leak was fake as a lot of people expected. Every image here is completely fake and made by editing images, 3D software, and more things.”

The user stated that English is not their first language and, therefore, it was easier to speak using the voice reader instead. Anyway, the explanation of the “silly experiment” continued.

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“Of course, it was me. I have uploaded some 3D stuff like concepts and even map concepts that follow the same aesthetic to the supposed leaked one,” they said. “I made this for fun and just to see how people were going to react to another supposed leak of information.”

KinaKingy, Reddit

One fake image showed that there would soon be a disaster at Steamy Stacks. We now know that won’t be the case.

KinaKingy rounded things off by advising fans to never set their hopes too high with leaked information and apologized if members of the community believed it was actually real. Many, however, were skeptical from the beginning.

Once we have official details on the Chapter 2, Season 2 trailer for Fortnite, we’ll be sure to let you know.