Fortnite’s ‘Titan Hand’ shows that Epic is the master of in-game events

polygon.com:

Fortnitefeels alive and weird right now, and it’s all because of one mysterious giant hand.

The game’s “Titan Hand” event, as players have dubbed it, started when fans first detected digital disturbances on March 1, with players seeing dirt and debris all the way up in the flying Battle Bus. Closer inspection revealed giant fissures had emerged from a crater in the ground. Returning players found each day brought a new development. Later, a giant stone hand pushed its way through the crust of Fortnite, alongside a giant chest. This box begged one question: Can you open it?

Developer Epic Games is running this mysterious event to mark the end of the current patch and usher in the Chapter 5 Season 2 update scheduled for release this Friday. Compared to the world-ending and star-studded event in December, a giant hand doesn’t seem all that remarkable. Still, the Titan Hand piqued the interest of lapsed and active players alike and has gripped the wider internet. It’s become the talk of the town online, where a single video showing the hand can get more than 1.6 million views on TikTok. The Titan Hand mystery is the stuff of recess rumors, and to me, it’s a prime example of how to design a live event in a game.

You know what they say…

When life gives you a large hand holding a mysterious box, shoot the box pic.twitter.com/NaNxKpkh0C

Each development rolls out daily and with little to no heads up. Epic Games did not publicize it widely, either, save for a cheeky post on X here and there. Leakers predicted some aspects of the event somewhat unsuccessfully, so each change has come to audiences as a genuine surprise. While some of this can just be a matter of Epic restricting information, what stands out to me is that then people have to uncover changes by word of mouth via social media platforms. I myself read about the news from a Fortnite Discord server that tracked and discussed the changes as they unfolded each day.

Events like these don’t just make for a flashy