Today, Fortnite Battle Royale's Season 8 officially began, and Epic Games' latest major update for the free-to-play shooter brought about a bevy of changes to the title, including the addition of a ping system like the one in Apex Legends. Now, it looks as if that may not be the only feature from Apex Legends which has inspired the Fortnite developer, as a recent datamine has discovered Epic could be bringing respawn mechanic to Fortnite that has similar designs to the one in Apex Legends.
According to several leaks, Fortnite's game files show that the title's Battle Royale portion contains assets in the way of sound files, object files, and image files that indicate a new feature dubbed the "Second Chance Van" is in the works. Apparently, this is going to be a respawn system akin to the one found in Apex Legends, as the assets suggest Fortnite will soon allow one to pick up a downed player's character card and take it to a Second Chance Van to revive them.
At the moment, there's no telling when or if the Second Chance Van will actually make its way into the game, but it definitely seems as though Epic has been keeping a close eye on Apex Legends since its launch earlier this year in order to determine where Fortnite can achieve similar successes. During a recent AMA on Reddit, in fact, the studio teased the possibility of a respawn mechanic coming to the Battle Royale release, with an Epic producer stating that players ought to "look for further updates during Season 8" regarding the matter.
Should Fortnite incorporate this kind of respawn feature, there's always the possibility that Epic winds up deciding to exclude it from the main portion of Battle Royale so as to maintain a relatively straightforward survival experience in that domain. After all, there have been multiple instances in the past where the studio has tinkered with Fortnite Battle Royale's formula by way of Limited Time Modes (LTMs), and the Second Chance Van may end up being reserved for its own LTM.
All things considered, it will be interesting to see how Fortnite Battle Royale fans respond to the possibility of a respawn system that functions comparably to the one from Apex Legends being added to the game. Epic is certainly no stranger when it comes to recontextualizing trends and familiar ideas from other games–the studio managed to capitalize on the rising popularity of Battle Royale once PUBG lit the fuse, after all–so perhaps the developer will be able to put its own unique spin on the respawn mechanic from Apex Legends that suits Fortnite.
Fortnite is available now in early access for Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.