Fortnite has become the digital fascination of teenagers and adults all over the world. NBA coaches are on the record saying that late night Fortnite sessions might be impacting practice performances. Fortnite has also garnered the attention of famous musicians and artists like Drake, Dillon Francis, and Marshmello. But Marshmello wasn’t in the news for playing the game exactly, but playing a special 10-minute digital concert for all Fortnite players. The Marshmello Fortnite crossover event was a benchmark hit.
This live digital crossover event was the first of its kind. An event that collided the worlds of electronic music, video game culture, and pop culture. Over 10 million users attended the live event, which is roughly one-third for Fortnite’s active user base, Wired reports.
How’d It Go? T’was A Blast
The stage appeared at Pleasant Park, one of the locations on the Fortnite map. This prompted the disappearance of all weapons in the game as well to prevent trolls from ruining the fun. Marshmello’s stage was complete with a full DJ booth, lasers, giant video screens, giant holographic dancing cats flanking each side of the stage and a one-of-one one digital avatar of the puffy-headed DJ himself behind the decks.
Marshmello played a set a hyped the crowd up in real time. Marshmello asked the crowd to jump on the drop, revealing the entire dancefloor as a trampoline and sending the crowd rocketing into the air. Avatars were throwing down every dance in the games selection on the drops. Marshmello could be heard hyping up the crowd as he would during any other set. Watching replays of the event gave me flashbacks to raves of old and opened my mind to the possibility of real-time augmented and virtual reality events.
With other popular artists like Dillon Francis constantly streaming Fortnite, it’s hard to imagine he’s not foaming at the mouth to get digitize himself and throw down behind the decks at Dusty Depot, Shifty Shafts, or any other popular alliterated locales on the Fortnite map. I can’t wait to see what Epic Games and the electronic music world cook up next.
