SATURDAY UPDATE: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home has caught an estimated $71M in its China web through Saturday, putting it on track for an opening in the high $90Ms there. This is slightly lower than where we saw it yesterday as the increase from Friday (not including Thursday midnights) was about 8%, but $100M is still possible. Japan and Hong Kong are also launching this weekend with strong debuts that will push FFH to a $110M+ overseas launch in just three markets.
All-in this is a win for the Jon Watts-directed sequel that picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame. And, it’s bigger than what the industry was projecting ahead of the weekend.
China has been ornery of late and even if FFH does not swing to the century mark in its launch, it still will have bragging rights to the 3rd best 3-day MCU debut in the market, behind Endgame and Infinity War. It would be the 4th best superhero launch behind the pics listed above and Sony’s own Venom. Given Venom may still be higher than FFH, the webbed wonder would notch the 2nd best start in China ever for Sony. What’s more, the estimated 3-day final would be above Captain Marvel and well higher than Spider-Man: Homecoming.
In Japan, FFH is on track to be the top superhero opening of the last decade outside of Endgame. Hong Kong is eyeing Sony’s best debut ever as well as the biggest superhero standalone and 5th best industry start of all time. In both markets, FFH is coming in higher than Homecoming and Captain Marvel.
Looking towards overseas play-through, and with an early projected $165M +/- opening through the rest of international next week, Captain Marvel will be a comp to keep an eye on. As Anthony and I reported separately, FFH could be nearing $500M worldwide through next Sunday including the new offshore bows, the holdovers in Asia and the domestic debut.
In wider release this weekend, Warner Bros/New Line’s Annabelle Comes Homeadded $8.8M on Friday to bring the offshore cume to $21.1M. With No. 1s in 25 of 63 markets now in play, the franchise entry is led by Mexico at $3M, followed by Indonesia with $2.6M, Russia at $1.2M, and Korea and India tied with $1.1M.
Full international update to come on Sunday.
PREVIOUS, FRIDAY: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home swooped into China today with an estimated $35.5M Friday which includes $3.2M in Thursday midnights. This well outperforms previous entry Spider-Man: Homecoming and sets FFH on track for a $100M+ opening weekend in the Middle Kingdom. That would land it above pre-debut projections which we noted yesterday were conservative based on lower than expected pre-sales. But with terrific social scores, an Avengers: Endgame halo and a lack of competition, Spidey’s off to a swinging start.
The opening day (with midnights rolled in) is Sony’s best ever in China, topping last year’s Venom. This is also the No. 1 standalone superhero debut and the 3rd best superhero launch behind Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War. While the opening weekend certainly looks poised to pass $100M, there is some caution over the three-day multiple in the wake of another standalone breakout, Captain Marvel, which did a 2.6.
However, ticketing platform Maoyan has given the Jon Watts-directed Far From Home a 9.2 while reviews aggregator Douban is at 8.3. Both are higher than CM while the latter is over Infinity War, but slightly lower than Endgame. (NB: these ratings do sometimes shift up and down in the first days.)
Working in Far From Home’s favor, beyond the built-in Middle Kingdom love there is for the character, are the social scores and word of mouth, as well as the fact that Better Days, a local movie that was expected to have great potential, was pulled off its June 28 date at the last minute this week. That this is also the first MCU title after Endgame in the Marvel-loving market is also a clear factor. Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal and Watts also visited Beijing pre-bow and were sporting in their promotional efforts.
Homecoming debuted in China in 2017, about two months after the majority of the world, and made $67M in its first weekend at today’s rates. The Middle Kingdom final was $116.3M (unadjusted) and all signs point to Far From Home well exceeding that. There was some early concern that Homecoming had less resonance with local audiences because the U.S. high school experience doesn’t fully translate, but Far From Home appears to be bucking that.
China was nevertheless the biggest overseas market on Homecoming as well as the previous two Spider-Man movies. It is also the top MCU hub with Endgame having taken in a staggering $629M there to become the highest-grossing import ever. Far From Home picks up following the events of Endgame as Spidey must step up to take on new threats in a world that has changed forever. Zendaya, Samuel L Jackson, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon and Cobie Smulders also star.
All of the Spider-Man films have released in China, going back to 2002 with the subsequent sequels growing apace with the market. The five-year gap between Sam Raimi’s 2007 entry and Marc Webb’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man made for exponential increases. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 then nearly doubled its predecessor with an over $94M cume (non-restated), and Homecoming topped that.
Along with China, there are only two other overseas markets going on FFH this weekend, Japan and Hong Kong. The rest of international starts Monday in Australia and carries on throughout the week to cover 98% of the offshore footprint. Italy goes on July 10.
WB
Elsewhere, Warner Bros has debuted Annabelle Comes Home in 50 overseas markets this week to gross $12.5M through Thursday. The latest in New Line’s horror franchise bowed to No. 1s in 30 of the 50 openings. There are 13 more markets coming online today with some majors, including Germany, Italy, UK, France and Spain getting dolled up in July. Japan goes in September.
In highlights, Mexico opened on a non-traditional Thursday, grossing an estimated $1.1M on 2,359 screens, ranking No. 2. The launch is on par with Annabelle and 55% ahead of The Conjuring. Including previews, the running cume is now $1.5M.
Indonesia debuted on Wednesday to an estimated $807K from 989 screens at a dominant No. 1. This is the 2nd best opening day ever for a WB horror film, only behind The Nun. The 2-day running cume is $1.7M.
Russia had a No. 1 start of $604K on 1,880 screens Thursday and bested all of the Conjuring universe titles except The Nun. In Korea, the 2-day come is $733K. In Vietnam, Annabelle coming home gave WB the studio’s 3rd best debut ever at $442K on Wednesday. The running tally through yesterday is $1M.
Further cumes through Thursday include UAE at $376K, Brazil at $327K, Malaysia at $326K and Australia with $227K.
We’ll have updates on the above titles throughout the weekend.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. Some popular favorites and lesser-seen titles fill out this week’s list of updates, along with a few games that fall in between. Like coins in the sofa! Does that still happen anymore? I feel like pockets are better these days and sofas aren’t as prone to sinking in the way they used to be. Well either way, there be updates here, friends. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper or by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it!
Flappy Fighter, Free A new challenger has arrived! Birdette enters the arena, and if you’re expecting her to be a clone of Street Fighter‘s Chun Li, you’re only half-right. I mean, the inspiration is obvious and some of her moves draw from Chun Li’s signature moves, but Birdette does have a personality all her own. The fight this time is Birdette versus Flappy, with Splashy hitting the bench for the time being. As with previous updates, this match-up fully replaces the previous one, so you’ll have to go through the tutorial and unlock all the difficulty settings again. Honestly, while Birdette is cool, she isn’t quite as fun to play for me as Flappy and Splashy are. I suppose it’s at least nice to get away from the Shoto Twins, if nothing else.
SEGA Heroes: Puzzle RPG Quest, Free Guilds are slowly coming along in SEGA Heroes, and this latest update added the biggest thing to that feature so far. You can now engage in battles against massively powerful bosses with the rest of your guild, working together to whittle the enemy down for various rewards. Feel free to come and check out the TouchArcade guild if you’re playing. The guild is starting to fill up a bit, but we’ve still got some empty spaces for anyone who wants to hang out and chat.
Dan The Man, Free Dan the Man has got a plan, and that plan is to update whenever the budget says he can. Luckily, last week was one of those times. That means you can look forward to a new beach background to kick off the summer, with a new ice cream costume available to make you seasonally appropriate. Some elements of the story mode got a little extra tender-loving care, and bugs all over the place have been stomped on as needed.
ANOTHER EDEN, Free This game has been getting a bit of my attention lately. I appreciate how the story unfolds, and it’s relatively low-pressure when it comes to trying to sell you things. This new update adds Cerrine as a new chance encounter, and Cetie and Yazuki join as new characters. Aside from that, it’s a whole mess of bug fixes, UI adjustments, balance tweaks, and that sort of thing. Sure, keep unloading that truck on me, WFS. Make with the beeping sound and the off-brand Chrono Trigger as long as you want.
Jetpack Joyride, Free Halfbrick positively splurged on updates last week, with the perennial favorite Jetpack Joyride also getting a decent little spiffing up. There are some new S.A.M. skins with their own music available in the vehicles section of the shop, a new global leaderboard so that you can compare to everyone else in the world playing the game, and some improvements to the results screen to make it more readable. There have also been some changes made to how missions are presented in order to make things clearer. Yeah, not bad.
Knights Chronicle, Free Well, Knights Chronicle is now officially one year old. Hard to believe. It feels like just yesterday when it came out and I didn’t notice it all for a few months. Anyway, the anniversary has a few things going on. A daily check-in provides tons of free crystals, and a Yo-Kai Watch collaboration event is going on that brings Jibanyan, Komasan, Komajiro, Hovernyan, and Blizzaria to the game until July 3rd. There’s a new Ancient Labyrinth dungeon to test your team to their limits, and Awakenings for Electra and Edwin. New heroes, new costumes, new minigame content, and a lot of other little improvements all add up to one nice update.
MARVEL Contest of Champions, Free Last week, Susan Richards was added to the Contest of Champions. But she’s not coming alone. As you probably could have guessed from the story surrounding Sue’s arrival, Namor the Sub-Mariner will also be jumping into the Contest of Champions line-up. If you don’t know Namor, I don’t blame you. He hasn’t had a movie and he probably never will because of weird licensing nonsense. Basically, he’s Marvel’s version of Aquaman, except he came two years before Aquaman and never had a decades-long dorky period the way that character did. Nope, Namor’s been pretty awesome the whole time, and is one of Marvel’s most unpredictable characters. I feel like we need more Namor in Marvel games, so I’m happy to see him here.
PUBG MOBILE, Free PUBG Mobile has a whole new mode to dive into: Team Deathmatch. You and your friends can team up in groups of four to battle other teams in an oddly small-scale PUBG experience. That’s the biggest part of this update, but there are tons of other little things as well. You’ve got control settings for first-person play, a new MVP showcase system at the end of matches, some extra details in Vikendi and its snow, a newly-added dedicated climbing button, a new charisma ranking, and a whole lot more. I don’t think I’ve ever given PUBG Mobile a coveted UMMSotW award before. Let’s change that as of this week, alright?
Injustice 2, Free The less popular younger brother of WB’s most popular mobile game, Injustice 2 is still out there giving it the ol’ college try. This update makes some big changes to the League of Anarchy team. The Last Laugh Joker, Heartbreaker Harley Quinn, and Entangling Poison Ivy can now join up in a potent threat to teams with high defense. They deal nasty damage over time, and that spells serious trouble for the Justice League. This update also adds in new store items, and fixes some outstanding bugs on lower-end devices like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Star Traders: Frontiers, $6.99 Mmm, yes. This is a Trese Brothers update, as you like it. The bulk of this update is wrapped up in new talents. A new Bounty Hunter talent, two new Pistoleer talents, and a new Diplomat talent, to be specific. You also get a new De Valtos ship component, the Grand Luxury Suite, which gives you a 22% bonus for each passenger. There are also a few balance adjustments, some bug fixes, and a couple of name changes for talents. Those Trese Brothers sure know how to polish the gems they put out, that’s for sure. And this is indeed quite the gem, friends.
That about wraps it up for last week’s significant updates. I’m sure I’ve missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I’ll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!
The co-creators of Fallout are teaming up to make a new first person role-player that aims to put the fun, and the funniness, back into the genre. Bleeding Edge hands-on and interview – Xbox's ambitious new fighter The Outer Worlds is so dripping in irony they should probably get Alanis Morissette to do the theme tune. It’s a video game about the evils of capitalism by a developer that’s just been bought out by one of the biggest companies on the planet. It’s also a game which celebrates what can be done on a very modest budget, even though, suddenly, that’s not a problem at all. And then, finally, there’s the fact that it’s full of comic irony, an action role-player by the original creators of Fallout that remembers that one of the main appeals of the series used to be that it was purposefully funny. Although there’s no post-apocalyptic setting (thank goodness, we think we’ve had enough of those for now) The Outer Worlds is not ashamed of the debt it owes to Fallout. But then it’s being made by two of the original creators, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, who, unlike Bethesda, were with the franchise from the beginning and partly responsible for creating the original setting and concept. Cain was the producer on the first Fallout and co-director on the second, while Boyarsky, who we got to interview, started as an artist on the first two games before going on to become co-director of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and senior world designer on Diablo III. So between the two of them they’ve been involved in some of the most acclaimed Western role-playing games of all time. The idea in The Outer Worlds is that you’re on an alien world that was originally meant to be terraformed into a paradise but things went wrong and the process ended up turning the wildlife into aggressive monsters, leaving behind only the less principled corporations and a colony ship that’s only there by accident – and with most of its passengers still in hibernation. As one of those that has been woken up your goal is to make a life for yourself and, if possible, find a better planet. The basic set-up seems closer to Borderlands than Fallout but the gameplay clearly has a lot in common with Bethesda’s first person titles, as well as the original isometric entries. The graphics though are unlikely to be winning any awards, at E3 or elsewhere, and it’s a testament to The Outer Worlds’ other qualities that the low budget visuals don’t get in the way at all. ‘We never really had much choice!’ says Boyarsky, when we ask him whether he got frustrated having to working with a relatively small budget.
‘Even when we were pitching this three years ago, when we first started working on it, Private Division [2K’s new indie label] were interested but we didn’t have a lot of other people that were. So we had to pitch this as a smaller game. It’s less risk, but it also means we get more freedom in what we do.’ The hands-off demo starts with you picking up a mission in a Wild West style town, where one of the local gang/business leaders wants you to take out a rival who’s making a killing selling a bacon-esque product that is actually a disgusting-looking tumour that has to be harvested from creatures called cystypigs. That’s not the sort of mission you’d ever get in Fallout and while Boyarsky is reticent to comment on why Bethesda took the black comedy out of the series he does know why it was added back in for The Outer Worlds. ‘That’s really a result of the people who are making it’, he says. ‘You get a snapshot of our personalities in that game [the original Fallout] and that was when we were sitting around talking about the game we wanted to make. So my darkness and Tim’s silliness, and a couple of other people’s personalities, all wedged together and that’s what we came up with. There was no one around telling us we couldn’t do it and it’s kind of the same this time as well.’ The Outer Worlds – we forget what these are called but we were told they were dangerous Despite the irony provided by Obsidian’s new owners the game does have a serious side to it, in that it pokes fun at corporate logic that, while exaggerated for The Outer World’s sci-fi world, is not as far removed from reality as it first seems. We suggest to Boyarsky that that works because the more you poke fun at seemingly serious institutions the more absurd you realise they really are. ‘That’s a fantastic way to put it’, he says. ‘And I think one of rules, when we’re talking to our writers and level designers, when they were trying to make something that would fit with the humour of the game, is that if you’re going to do something that’s very dark it has to have a silly, humorous edge to it and vice versa. ‘Because, even beyond just making a point, if you want to do something that has an impact on the player… if you just have it so dark and miserable it’s not fun to play it turns people off because it’s too heavy. We knew we wanted to do this world that was kind of on the verge of collapse and it could have been very depressing if we played it straight, so we wanted to be a fun game.’ ‘And to me, the way I like to make points, is through humour. I feel like it’s more effective, I feel like people don’t think you’re lecturing at them so much. And even then I’m way more about raising questions than trying to tell you what the answer is’, adds Boyarsky. ‘Because even with the corporate side of this game we try to make it that when you go and talk to them they have logical reasons for doing what they’re doing. They think they’re in the right.’ ‘‘They’re not sitting there thinking, ‘How are we going to make people’s lives horrible?’ They think they’re creating this perfect society that works for the best of everybody. So I always try to approach things that way, where it feels like they’re characters with believable motivations even if it’s coming from an absurd situation.’ The demo mission involves a quick trip into the wastelands, where the more dangerous creatures are avoided and the smaller ones dealt with for a quick bit of loot. That’s almost the only action we see in the demo though as the guy playing opts to instead talk things out with the various guards he meets. Although rather than the po-faced dialogue of Fallout that involves bullying, charming, and even romancing other characters – from bluffing your way past lazy, dim-witted guards to whispering binary poetry into robots’ metal ears. Even with a non-player character in tow you have a special disguise which is convincing enough that you can talk to most people and have a chance of convincing them you should be there, rather than them just shooting you on sight. That even works with the robots, which you’re able to reprogram to shoot the guards, allowing you to sneak into the main office and confront the big boss. ‘Charlie and Tim looked at a lot of different shooter action games to see what kind of things they wanted but our main game was always about an in-depth story with a lot of reactivity’, says Boyarsky of the core mechanics. ‘I’m really happy that we were able to get the disguise system in there, because I think it’s a wonderful way for talking characters to be able to get through restricted areas. It’s like your sneak path for a talking person, because I can talk my way past guards.’ Once you reach your target you’re given the option to simply shoot him, as per your contract, to take more money from him to do the opposite, or convince him that he should team up with the other gang leader and find a peaceful solution. The Outer Worlds has all the role-playing depth you’d expect of a Fallout style game but it’s the ability to talk your way out of trouble that really sets it aside from the crowd. That and the fact that the dialogue is interesting, and funny, enough that you actually want to sit through it all.
The obvious parting question for Boyarsky is whether he knows what he’ll work on after The Outer Worlds and whether it will take advantage of the larger budgets offered by the Microsoft acquisition. ‘I think I know’, he says. ‘But hopefully the budget will be within reason. I don’t wanna fall into that trap.’ ‘Obviously a bigger budget is better, but only within reason. Because I feel like some of the best ideas that me and Tim have come up with, in our careers, were forced onto us by having to have creative solutions to things like not enough time or not enough money. ‘I feel like if you are not given any restrictions or things you have to overcome, I feel like people can end up spinning their wheels or trying to put too much into it. It’s a great way to focus your thinking when you have to figure out, ‘How are we going to do this with this amount of money and this amount of time? ‘I think it just gives you a lot more freedom in a lot of ways. It doesn’t give you as much freedom on the technological flashiness end, but it gives you more freedom on content.’ Formats: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC Publisher: Private Division Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Release Date: 25th October 2019 The Outer Worlds – the graphics are okay, but nothing more
Fortnite may no longer be able to claim it’s the biggest video game in the world, as interest begins to fall and Minecraft sees a resurgence. EA claim UK Parliament loot boxes are ‘surprise mechanics’ and ‘quite fair’ If there’s two video games every parent, even those that have zero interest in gaming, have heard of it’s Minecraft and Fortnite (with Grand Theft Auto probably in third, even though kids aren’t supposed to play it). Fortnite’s unparalleled success has been due to just a few obvious factors: it’s free, it’s constantly updated, and it’s actually quite good. Everyone plays it but particularly cash-strapped kids, at whom most of the marketing and gaudy costumes are aimed at. But what goes up must go down and at some point Fortnite is inevitably going to see a decline in interest, and that time looks like being round about now. The latest Google search data, as noticed by Forbes, shows that interest in Fortnite has been on a steady decline and Minecraft has seen an unexpected spike – with Minecraft creators Mojang reporting that YouTube views of Minecraft related videos were up 8% last month. Fortnite’s decline is by no means sudden or unexpected but what is surprising is the rise in interest for Minecraft.
It’s probably related to the game’s 10th anniversary celebrations, which have raised its profile, and the annoucement of mobile AR app Minecraft Earth and console-based dungeon crawler Minecraft Dungeons. Although plenty of adults play Fortnite the audience for Minecraft is more predominately children, with most tending to grow out of it in their early teens. The uptick though could show that some are no longer embarrassed by their earlier obsession and are now coming back to the game. Something which Minecraft Earth is likely to encourage even more.
The Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes are available right now for all players around the world. This long-awaited update comes with the release of the Avengers Endgame crossover event and much more. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes and see what’s new. For Creative and Save the World, check out the official site.
Fortnite 8.50 Patch Notes
Endgame – Limited Time Mode Join the battle for the Infinity Stones! Fight as Chitauri and Thanos or wield Avengers items in the Endgame LTM.
Limited Time Mode: Endgame
Summary Thanos and his Chitauri invade the Battle Royale island, in search of the six Infinity Stones.
Mode Details
Endgame features a team of heroes fighting to stop Thanos and his Chitauri from claiming all six Infinity Stones.
Both teams respawn when eliminated until the other side completes their objective.
On one side is the Hero team. Heroes respawn when eliminated until the enemy team has found all six Infinity Stones.
Heroes start with a treasure map that leads directly to a Mythic Avengers item.
Other Avengers items can be found in Chests throughout the map.
The goal for the Hero team is to destroy the Chitauri army and defeat Thanos.
Team Thanos is comprised of Chitauri Invaders and Thanos himself.
Chitauri Invaders start with a powerful laser rifle, an anti-structure grenade attack, and a jetpack that lets them briefly leap high into the air.
The first Chitauri to recover an Infinity stone will be transformed into Thanos.
Thanos has a powerful punch, a destructive beam attack, and the ability to jump high into the air and then smash anything in his way when he comes back down.
Each time an Infinity Stone is claimed, Thanos’ abilities grow more powerful and the Chitauri gain health.
Reality Stone (Red) = Heath & Shields doubled (1000->2000)
Soul Stone (Orange) = Siphon activated (grants Thanos shields only)
Mind Stone (Yellow) = Jump height doubled
Space Stone (Blue) = Ground Pound AOE size tripled, damage x6
Time Stone (Green) = Big knockback added to each hit, damage x3
Power Stone (Purple) = Laser damage x6
If Thanos is eliminated from the match, another Chitauri will become him after a short wait (unless Thanos is the last one standing).
If Thanos & the Chitauri find all six Infinity Stones, Heroes will no longer be able to respawn.
The goal for Thanos and his army is to find the stones and then eliminate the remaining heroes.
Weapons + Items
Bug Fixes & Improvements
The Hold to Swap functionality is now confirmed upon releasing the Use button rather than when initially pressing it.
This should help with the issue of accidentally swapping.
If a player is eliminated by fall damage while inside a vehicle, the player that last damaged that vehicle will receive the credit for that elimination.
Re-enabled hit markers to be server-side authoritative instead of client-side.
This will help prevent instances where players see hit markers but no damage.
Players that were Rebooted into Rifts were teleporting into the sky but would not enter skydiving mode.
Vehicles weren’t getting impulsed away from the Reboot Van.
Collision for the Reboot Van was not affecting some vehicles, allowing them to hide inside of the Reboot Van.
The yellow “invulnerability” effect wasn’t appearing on players who were revived by the Reboot Van.
The Reboot Card was still playing its spawn sound even if the player disconnected.
Dropping inventory items while in vehicles with weapons is now blocked to prevent various camera issues.
Traps were occasionally being placed in the middle of a tile rather than against a wall when using Builder Pro.
When exiting vehicles, the equip animation will now always play before weapons can be fired.
This will prevent the issue where players would occasionally see themselves fire right after exiting a vehicle before the server had time to register the shot.
The elimination feed text will no longer display the “eliminated by ally” message if an ally interrupts a player reboot animation.
Fall damage was being taken when using a Jetpack (in supported Limited Time Modes) after being launched from the Pirate Cannon.
Players were not able to negate fall damage using a Flintlock Pistol while crouching.
Players couldn’t see the nameplates of party member’s Reboot Cards in the UI.
Players would not drop a Reboot Card if they were eliminated after confirming a Reboot but before their teammate actually spawned.
Gameplay
Bug Fixes & Improvements
We’ve resolved an issue that was preventing the correct amount of Survival XP from being granted after games and have gifted XP to players as compensation.
You’ll receive this compensation via the Gifting system.
Competitive
New Tournament – April 27 & 28: Fortnite World Cup Online Open Week 3 ($1,000,000 total prize pool!)
Participation in this event requires players to reach Champion League in Arena.
Region Lock is in effect – players may only participate in the qualifier for a single server region each week of the Online Opens. The server region of the first match entered for that weekend’s tournament will be the one the player will be locked into for that entire weekend.
Format:
April 27 – Round One: All Eligible Players.
April 28 – Round Two: Top 3000 Players from Round One.
Streaming Replays – Currently only available on PC & Mac
Added tournament Match History, which can be viewed by selecting a player on the leaderboards.
Replays can be viewed from each match that player has played.
Added the ability to spectate live matches during tournaments by selecting a player on the leaderboards.
Note: Match must have been running for 10 minutes for live replay to be available.
Added the ability to view a specific match by game session ID using the “View Streaming Replay” button in the Replay Browser.
Arena & Tournaments will now record profile stats to Solo/Duo/Squad categories rather than as an LTM.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Players in Arena were incorrectly seeing themselves demoted to a lower division after losing Hype.
This was strictly a visual issue and all Hype values and division unlocks are once again being displayed correctly.
Tournament posters in-game were incorrectly showing certain events as starting in ‘2 Days’.
Tournament posters and the Arena Panel were not loading properly on mobile devices.
Performance
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Resolved a cause of significant hitching during skydiving. and during late game combat.
Art + Animation
We’ve added a unique animation for petting the dog and other Pets.
Audio
Added Sound Visualizer without Spatialization (panning) of sounds in-game.
By introducing this mode, if you are a hearing-impaired player, then you will now be able to play the game with audio and the visualizer turned on simultaneously!
Drop in and give us your feedback about these changes either in-game or on our social channels to help us continue to make improvements for the future!
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Various gameplay sounds (gunshots, walking, reloading) will no longer retrigger at incorrect/random times.
This was causing “ghost” sounds to be heard when nothing was causing the actual sound effect.
Fixed an issue that would cause certain things to not have looping audio when they should.
Replay
Bug Fixes & Improvements
When healing with foraged Banana or Apples, the full visual effects weren’t playing when viewed in replays.
Mobile
The reactive effects were not working properly for the Marshmello Outfit.
MSAA anti-aliasing enabled on P30 Pro, Mate 20, Mate 20X.
The interact button now has context-sensitive icons.
You can now move while the map is open by providing input on the left side of the screen.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Made improvements to stability and to resolve some crashes.
Made performance improvements on the iPad Mini 4 and Air 2.
The movement joystick wasn’t appearing on the HUD for certain devices.
Push notifications were not being sent after updates finished downloading.
Blocked players on player’s friend lists were not appearing as ‘Blocked’.
The fire button and right fire-stick would not function after anchoring the Baller grapple with tap to fire.
The right fire-stick was not allowing camera movement while in the Baller.
The Baller grapple was not releasing on the first tap.
Players could get stuck in an infinite fire loop after exiting the Baller while it was anchored with the grapple.
Double tapping was required to detach the Baller’s grapple when using tap to fire.
There were visual issues on the Back Button in the menus.
Voice Chat icons from players set to “sit out” were not appearing.
Ammo boxes weren’t opening.
The Confirm and Cancel buttons in Squad Management were difficult to touch/interact with.
The Option menus were closing the unapplied changes was closing the entire menu instead of just the popup prompt.
Menu icons could be removed from the HUD Layout Tool.
Vehicle boost icons were appearing different between viewing them in a match vs in the HUD Layout Tool screen.
The Score Tracking widget can now be removed from the Mobile HUD
Score Tracking widget can now be removed from Mobile HUD
It was difficult to see character and weapon animations while using the Boom Bow.
The Map widget was setting its anchors inappropriately when moved in the HUD layout tool, making some attached game mode UI push the Map widget off the screen.
You may need to reset the Map widget in the HUD Layout Tool to resolve this issue.
The Fortnite Week 9 Challenges are finally here after last week’s decent challenges and a super awesome patch today. As always, there are a ton of challenges to complete including dancing between three ice sculptures. In this guide for Fortnite Battle Royale, we are going to let you know how to complete this fun and quick challenge.
For starters, as always, the Fortnite Week 9 Challenges are now available. There are seven challenges in total per usual. Three of those challenges for all players but four of them are only for those who own the season eight battle pass, but you might already have that if you did the overtime challenges last season.
But for the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on the dance between three ice sculptures challenge. This is a multi-part challenge but we’re going to focus on the first part. It’s not super hard to do as all you need to do is find the location, dance there, and that’s it. Well, if you do it three times at least.
The location of the three ice sculptures are, thankfully, right by each other so you won’t have to go far to find the right spot to dance. But where are they? Well, as you’d probably expect, they are found in the snowy biome from the start of season seven. They are directly east of Frosty Flights and southwest of Polar Peak.
You can find the three ice statues in a small forest just at the base of the mountain where Polar Peak is. They’re really close to one another so all you need to do is head to the middle of them and do any dance emote and you’re good to go. That concludes the first part of but one of the Fortnite Week 9 Challenges.
