These skins are gnarly, bra! Photo: Epic Games
We finally got a new surfing game, but not necessarily in the way you would expect. This week, wave-riding got added into one of the biggest video games in the world.
The development comes courtesy of Fortnite, the massively popular online battle royale game. As Polygon reports, a new update did away with the flying bus that traditionally shuttled players onto the game map, and instead replaced it with a sequence where players ride a surfboard through a storm. The change is accompanied by a West Coast-themed map, featuring parodies of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and more.
However, it seems that shredding will not be a permanent fixture. Epic Games, the Fortnite’s developer, has already confirmed that the old format will return on December 4 – much to the relief of Fortnite fans who seem to overwhelmingly hate the new surfing mechanic.
Though it’s only a small part of the game, and a temporary one at that, this may be the biggest development we’ll see in surfing video games in a long time. Surfers looking to experience their hobby in video game form have long been plagued with a dearth of options. While many of us may fondly remember classic titles like Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, more recent options have been less high profile, such as a WSL-branded mobile game called True Surf, and an effort from indie developer Bungarra Software titled Barton Lynch Pro Surfing.
So, if you’re at the center of what I have to imagine is an extremely small Venn diagram of people who both play Fortnite and surf, enjoy your moment while it lasts.