[GameSpot] - When Does Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 4 Start? Release Date, Event, Battle Pass, And What We Know

[343iBot]

Fornite Chapter 3, Season 4 is approaching quickly as its long summer season begins to wind down. With a new season of Fortnite coming in September, the leaks and rumors are beginning to pour in, as they always do. As it stands right now, it seems one rumored season theme is gaining credibility as the in-game Reality Tree continues to spread its oddly nostalgic influence. Here's everything we know about the Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4 release date, battle pass, and more.

Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4 start date

Epic usually doesn't formally announce a new season's start date until the last minute--sometimes the company doesn't even announce it before it arrives with a game update. But we can always reliably infer when the next season begins thanks to the in-game battle pass menu.

Because a new season always means a new battle pass, and the game always details when the current battle pass expires, we can expect a new season to begin one day after the current battle pass expires. For Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4, that means a new season is expected to start on September 18.

This lines up perfectly with Fortnite's recent new season rollouts too, which have been occurring on Sundays for about a year now. That means the last day of Season 3 should be September 17. If you're still finishing up your battle pass, you've got until then to do so.

Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 3 finale event

With each outgoing season, fans hope for another Fortnite live event. These cinematic, story-driven events play out like live theater where each player has a direct hand in the action. They're a ton of fun, so it's no wonder players hope each season brings a finale event.

As of right now, we haven't seen many rumors pointing to an event, though there are at least two reasons to expect something to be revealed soon. For one, the story is ramping up rather dramatically. In the most recent Vibin' Quests, this season's story-centric challenges, it was revealed that several members of The Seven seem to have gone missing, with at least two of them leaving their helmets behind.

Fortnite just started testing ANOTHER update (21.51) for this season, possibly the event or rift tour?

So now we have 21.50 on the 30th, 21.51 on September 6th and Season 4 on September 12th/13th

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) August 18, 2022

The Seven's airtight suits are what keep them immune to the island's time-looping properties, thus preventing "Snapshots," or clones, being made of them, among other benefits. If their helmets have been found, it may mean they're in danger or have even been cloned. And if that's the case, it's exactly the sort of drama we may need a finale event to resolve.

Another reason to expect an event is the recent reveal that an additional game patch has been queued for release later this season. The contents of a live event are inevitably datamined every time by the game's restless datamining community, and recently the most prominent of those dataminers, Hypex, noticed an extra patch is on the way this season. This could be a means of Epic hiding the event details as long as it can.

It's also worth noting that, though most events come at the end of a season, they occasionally occur at the start of a new season, such as the Zero Crisis Finale, which came as part of the Season 6 update in Chapter 2, meaning it wasn't visible to dataminers until the night before the season launched, while the patch was being applied.

Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4 battle pass and theme

Right now, there are two leading theories as to what the next Fortnite battle pass and season theme will be. By our estimation, one of them seems more likely than the other, but we'll go over both of them. One theory suggests the next season will be entirely Marvel-themed. The evidence for this is pretty simple: Chapter 2, Season 4 was an all-Marvel season, and since Epic and Marvel have some sort of multi-year deal in place, another Marvel season could happen, so why not exactly one Chapter later?

Well, here's why not: In the storyline, the Reality Tree is screwing with the island's landscape, magically turning current regions into throwbacks to the game's original chapter and map. Rumors have begun to swirl that this is just a tease for more to come, and Chapter 3, Season 4 will be all about these nostalgic throwbacks to the Fortnite of a few years ago. The season will also kick off right around the game's fifth anniversary, too, which arguably lends more credence to the rumors.

People are speculating that S4 is full of throwback due to the fact that it starts around BR's 5th birthday and Epic updating some stuff like Planes, Mechs, 50v50, Storm King, Shockwave Launcher, 2 Marvel Mythics, Spy Games, Old Chapters' Relics/POIs appearing & more..
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/5Ur8F1hSpq

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) August 22, 2022

With that in mind, a battle pass for such a season could mix in popular but reimagined characters we've seen before, such as Black Knight, Brite Bomber, and perhaps even ubiquitous heroes such as Jonesy and Ramirez.

This is the sort of article we'll be updating aggressively as we learn more, and it won't be long before the leaks really start pouring in, we expect. Bookmark this page and come back often as we round up all the latest rumors, leaks, and official reveals leading up to the mid-September launch of Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4.

View the full article