Fortnite is teasing an It crossover
Maybe Pennywise is less scary when you have Slurp Juice.
Let's say you were a pan-dimensional evil clown who enjoys eating kids. Where would you hide out now? The sewer? Nah, this isn't 1960, the year Stephen King's novel It was originally set. Today, any child-eating demon worth its salt would definitely set up shop in Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world.
And it looks like that's what's happening. As we speak, Fortnite is teasing a crossover event of some kind with It Chapter 2, which premieres in US theatres this weekend.
Run around Fortnite's battle royale island, and you'll find red balloons emerging from sewer grates. Pop one, and you'll hear a demonic cackle. Hey, cool!
Red balloons are starting to appear across the map 🎈🤡 #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/geY9pVGpFlSeptember 4, 2019
This isn't the first time Epic has wrangled a cross promotion with a major motion picture, of course. There have been the Avengers-themed limited time events, although it's arguable that the Avengers films are a bit more family friendly than It, which is an R-rated horror movie. But Fortnite has also teamed up with John Wick, which isn't a horror, but certainly isn't meant for kids.
And hey, I'm not sure kids scare all that easily these days anyway. Being that they've grown up with an internet that's given us things like the SCP Foundation and Marble Hornets, scary clowns may not rate as highly as they did in 1990 when the It TV miniseries (starring Command & Conquer Red Alert 3's Tim Curry) first aired.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Palworld developer reports Nintendo's suing over 3 Pokémon patents for only $66,000 in damages, but a videogame IP lawyer says fighting the lawsuit could mean 'burning millions of dollars'
No Man's Sky gets cross-save on a dozen platforms and brings back Mass Effect's Normandy as a limited-time rewar