At the end of last year, Fortnite's Creative mode was released, giving fans the tools to make their very own creations and then share them with other players. This release was followed up with the announcement of the Block, which looked to bring exceptional Creative mode constructions to the battle royale map. While this initiative has been proceeding smoothly to date, the newest addition to the Block has recently been removed due to a controversial element.
The Mysterious Mansion was created by Fortnite fan FuryLeaks, and it was added to Fortnite's the Block just last week. As the name suggests, this creation took the form of a giant residence, and it was filled with rooms, chests, and even a maze to traverse. However, after players had the chance to explore the new location, a controversy about an apparent suicide reference within the Mysterious Mansion began to emerge.
Specifically, there is a room within the mansion that contains a chair toppled over directly under a rope which hangs from the ceiling. To some, the implication of this scene seemed clear enough, a person had hung themselves in this location, and its discovery prompted discussion among the community.
Since then, Epic has chosen to remove the Mysterious Mansion from the Block in Fortnite, indicating that the content "did not adhere to [the company's] content creation guidelines." However, in a conversation with Polygon, FuryLeaks suggests that this is all just a misunderstanding, and that the idea behind the scene was simply that the chair was hanging from the rope and then fell down.
That said, prior to Mysterious Mansion's debut on the Block, FuryLeaks shared a walkthrough of the site through their Twitter account. In this short video, the controversial area is seen, but there is one major difference from how the room materialized in the official release: a character model hangs from the end of the rope.
Whatever FuryLeaks' intentions may have been, Mysterious Mansion has left the Block and Tropical Treetops, a previous submission, has returned. While some may feel as though this reaction is unwarranted, Fortnite's truly gigantic player base means that Epic certainly has a lot to consider when making these types of decisions.
Fortnite is out now for Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.