Epic continues to try and make Fortnite appeal to as many people as possible, and the next steps the studio plans to take on that journey appear to lead to a standalone version of the game where building is strictly off-limits.

That's according to Fortnite dataminers on Twitter who discovered testing for such a project already appears to be underway. Discovered by comfyyls and shared by FNBRintel, testing for a “Zero Build only version of Fortnite” is ongoing. As of right now, information on the mysterious new version of the massively popular BR game is only in Japanese, suggesting if testing really is underway, it's happening in Japan.

Fans of Fortnite's zero-build mode are naturally pretty happy at the prospect, but the codename Epic has applied to its standalone project has taken the shine off the discovery somewhat. The zero-build project has been codenamed FortniteEDP, leading to about 80 percent of the replies to the tweet below being jokes about cupcakes and how far Fortnite players would travel for one.

Epic are currently testing a Zero Build only version of Fortnite codenamed "FortniteEDP" it's only Japanese as of right now💀

(VIA @comfyyls) pic.twitter.com/ky4AxIyhwr

— FNBRintel (@FNBRintel) March 16, 2023

What no one at Epic working on this project seems to have realized is the dark connotations attached to the EDP acronym. EDP is now slang for someone who would do anything for a cupcake. Innocent enough, but the origins of that definition are where things get dark. EDP was a YouTuber who was caught on camera attempting to meet up with an underage girl. He attempted to explain his way out of the situation by saying they were going to get a cupcake.

The decision to briefly remove building from Fortnite entirely was made almost exactly one year ago. Epic trialled it for a week and while some hated it, enough people loved it that various zero-build modes were added to the game permanently and have remained in place since. There also appears to be a first-person mode nearing completion as more ways to play Fortnite are gradually being rolled out.

Posted: Mar 22, 2023 1:45 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/epic-testing-standalone-zero-build-fortnite/