"Astronomical" was right. Travis Scott's Fortnite virtual "concert" Thursday evening twisted, exploded and imploded the game's world until it literally unfolded like a butterfly, revealing a live online experience unlike anything seen before.
Thursday's show is the first of a series of a virtual global tour that lasts into the weekend. Fortnite has held concerts in the past, even a live album listening party with Weezer. It's all part of developer Epic Games's tentative plans to spin the popular free online game into something bigger, akin to the fabled virtual Metaverse world. This weekend's concerts are just a flex on how hard Epic Games is swinging for the fences.
His audio-fueled "Astroworld" planet orbited the Fortnite world. Travis launched players into the stratosphere, the planet pulsating with hype. The entire map bounced everyone like a trampoline, all to the beat. Sexy virtual hologram dancers backed up the rapper as he continued to zip all over the map.
But it's what you can see, and what you can do, that brought this event to the next level. Travis touched down onto the map, his head touching the atmosphere. "Sicko Mode" kicked off the mix as he wandered and danced around the map, rapping and teleporting. The lip syncing on his model nicely matched the tracks.
His audio-fueled "Astroworld" planet orbited the Fortnite world. Travis launched players into the stratosphere, the planet pulsating with hype. The entire map bounced everyone like a trampoline, all tin rhythm with the beat. Sexy virtual hologram dancers backed up the rapper as he continued to zip all over the map.
Travis' skin exploded, revealing his cyborg innards. Eventually, everyone's central nervous systems became a rainbow-streaked light show. The rest of the show is almost too bizarre to describe. The surreal experience shouldn't be any surprise to Travis Scott's effects-laden music videos. It was only a question of whether this event would match that aesthetic, and it's safe to say it did.
If the lack of live music or content might disappoint, an Epic Games employee tweeted that the work to create the event was all done from home during quarantine. We can only imagine what's possible without social distancing.
Epic Games has Travis Scott to thank for much of Fortnite's popularity. The 27-year-old rapper joined famous gamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, Drake and Pittsburgh Steeler Juju Smith-Schuster in a legendary March 2018 Twitch stream that drove the game's popularity across the world, rising further over the last two years.
Reactions to the concert were also positive. Fans and even critics alike were fascinated by the event. Just before the start of the NFL draft, Smith-Schuster, like his former squad mate Travis Scott, is still all too eager to hype Fortnite.