An internal presentation at Epic Games showed ambitious promotional plans for the game, including a basketball mini-game and a planned “Party Royale” featuring Zion Williamson and LeBron James. Unveiled as a feature of the progressing Epic v. Apple trial, the document comes from a quarterly business review performed in June 2020.
As well as detailing the game’s revenue and promotional outlook, the presentation lays out a new kind of “experimental” venture to be worked within Fortnite, including plans to implement a basketball mini-game as a part of a more broader NBA partnership.
One slide describes the project as “a Fortnite version of arcade basketball,” which would permit players to take to the courts as an alternative to the traditional Battle Royale. An ensuing slide prods the arrival of release of themed emotes, playoff events, and potential NBA post-game shows inside the game.
Strikingly, bits of hearsay have flowed that Season 6 of the game may incorporate a skin of LeBron James, beloved basketball player, driven by close analysis of recent update packages. Zion Williamson’s participation is less clear; the archive makes no reference to him outside of the graphic above.
Epic Games declined to comment.
A large number of the events detailed in the presentation have effectively occurred, including a extensive Marvel crossover and the skin partnerships with Brazilian soccer star Neymar and popular streamer LazarBeam.
The show additionally suggests Epic is chipping away at a themed skin with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a component of the game’s Icon series, timed for the first quarter of 2021. No authority organization has been reported at this point, however there have been huge bits of hearsay around some sort of hybrid, driven by strange visual likenesses among Johnson and a secretive Season 6 character, just as an enigmatic Instagram post from the star.