Fortnite fans are now certain there’s something new and mysterious going on within the game’s classic OG mode — which, it’s now clear, is dropping an extra layer of story.
Let’s recap. This past weekend, Fortnite’s OG mode, which is slowly cycling through the game’s original seasons, finally got to the battle royale’s first live event orginally seen back in June 2018: the rocket launch. But, this time, things weren’t quite the same.
While billed as another chance to watch the same iconic live event from 2018, there were a couple of notable differences. Sure, fans saw Fortnite’s rocket launch, a mysterious broadcast boom out, and the spaceship disappear into a rift leaving a huge crack in the sky. But that crack is now an ominous glowing red, rather than the original blue — and there have been other, more subtle changes too.
This new version of the rocket launch began with a red rift butterfly appearing next to players, a first signal that something was different. Rift butterflies are typically blue, with red currently associated in-game with the events of the main Battle Royale / Zero Build storyline — and the red demonic energy summoning demons from portals. Is this some kind of crossover? Or is red simply meant to suggest something is wrong?
Eagle-eyed players first spotted something strange going on in Fortnite’s OG mode last month, when the map’s Lost-inspired bunkers began flashing a message in Morse code. These bunkers existed around Fortnite’s Island throughout its original incarnation — but famously did very little. Suddenly, in this new OG version of the game, they were flashing their lights on and off to spell out a message: “Something is wrong”.
FORTNITE OG BUNKERS NOW HAVE MORSE CODE 👀
TRANSLATION: “Something is wrong.” [VIA @FortTory] pic.twitter.com/ECeFCXc1R7
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) June 18, 2025
Fortnite’s tie-in comics ultimately revealed these bunkers as belonging to the Imagined Order. One of the main antagonists of Fortnite’s lore, the IO secretly ran the original Fortnite Island as a battleground in order to defend its source of power.
At this point in Fortnite’s original storyline, players had no clue who the IO were, or what the bunkers were for. Likewise, players had yet to learn who the Visitor was — the rocket’s mysterious pilot — and what him being a member of “The Seven” actually meant.
Of course, seeing Fortnite’s OG mode play out in 2025, players have all of this context already — and so it’s cool to see Epic Games having some fun — while subtly suggesting to players that what they’re seeing is taking place in a slightly different branch of the Fortnite multiverse.
A Red Rift Butterfly suddenly appeared and flew into The Visitor’s Rocket right before the event, leading to the Sideways Rift that was created being red instead of blue.
But I wonder why did the butterfly suddenly appear and why was it red 🤔 pic.twitter.com/CxXkbVxMYz
— VortexLore (@VortexLoreFN) July 26, 2025
Remember Fortnite’s original return of its OG mode as a limited-time experience, which ended in a remixed version of the game’s black hole live event? It was this moment, dubbed the Big Bang, which properly birthed Fortnite’s multiple realities within the game’s own lore — giving an in-universe reason for why Fortnite suddenly offered Lego, racing and music offshoots as well.
So, too, with OG mode — which Epic Games later made a permanent offering as well — the suggestion here now is this isn’t merely a look back into the game’s past, but something that co-exists and can still offer fresh surprises. (It’s a neat lore reason for why OG features remixed versions of classic skins like the Visitor, too — as they’re from a different multiverse reality.)
What’s next for OG mode? Well, from this point Fortnite’s storyline really kicked off, with the sky crack spawning Kevin the Cube, introducing the game’s Zero Point macguffin, the IO, the Seven… though how these will all be portrayed in the OG version remains to be seen. For now, mini red rifts are currently appearing and disappearing notable parts of the original Island — such as the sign at Lonely Lodge, or the Motel.
THE LONELY LODGE SIGN HAS RIFTED OUT OF THE ISLAND‼️#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/bqfW3HnqaS
— Rezztro (@Rezztro) July 27, 2025
Meanwhile, back in the main Battle Royale / Zero Build mode/timeline, the current season’s story is drawing to a definitive close this weekend in an all-new climactic live event featuring Superman and… a kraken? Look out for that this Saturday, August 2 at 2pm Eastern.
Image credit: EveryDayFN
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
