Fortnite data miners tease what a desert map might look like—but it’s not a real leak

They had us fooled.

Image via Epic Games

The buildup to Fortnite‘s fifth season has already been crazy.

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Between the rocket launch, the subsequent crack in the sky, and now pieces of the map turning up in the desert, people are pretty hyped for what it could all mean.

A lot of speculation has been focused on the implications for the game’s map. Fortnite has only ever had one map, and a lot of players think that the time is right for another one—especially when the current one is being eaten by rifts.

Earlier today, prolific Fortnite data miners Two Epic Buddies posted an image that got the community all in a flutter about a potentail new desert map.

Originally it was believed that they’d done it again, and Two Epic Buddies were showing off a new map—or at least something like it. Maybe they’d manage to mind some textures, and apply them to the existing map to show what it would look like.

When the account put up a YouTube video however, it became clear this was a false alarm. Instead of finding something real, they were simply editing the game somehow to make the existing map appear different.

It’s disappointing that the “leak” turned out not to be real, but it certainly helped ramp up the hype for season five. There’s only three days to wait before we find out what all of this crazy rift stuff actually means.

Update July 9 2018, 9:23am CT: The original version of this story speculated that the leak was of official in-game assets. This appears to not be the case, and the story has been updated to reflect this.

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Callum Leslie
Weekend Editor, Dot Esports.