Theunis Jansen van Rensburg·
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Fortnite will premiere a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker scene

Still the biggest game in the world, Fortnite has found several ways to remain relevant and on the top of people’s mind, beyond what they do with gameplay and new maps. Tie-ins with the biggest movie franchises has helped it continually grow its active user base, also helping re-activating players that have since moved on. Avengers: Endgame was a massive deal in Season 1 of Fortnite, and now Season 2 is going to tie-in with the upcoming Star Wars movie in a new way.

There is already a Stormtrooper skin available in-game, but now Fortnite will exclusively be screening a scene from the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker film. It will be showed in-game at the Risky Reels, drive-in theatre on December 14th.

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This certainly isn’t the first bid to use Fortnite as a vehicle for live promotional events. But never have they released first exclusive movie clips. While it’s too soon to say if in-game screenings will become a regular staple of Fortnite, it’s hard to imagine movie studios turning down the prospect when the game has such a large audience.

If the audience keeps growing, Fortnite’s whole business model can expand to include to screen exclusive content as well, like new trailers, extended versions, etc. It will be interesting to see how these partnerships expand into 2020, as it certainly is a novel idea in the gaming industry.

For many years now the gaming industry has been exponentially larger than the movie industry, but to seeing them come together and share the same audience makes a lot of sense from an advertising and PR point of view. Last year Wreck-It Ralph popped up on the screen at Risky Reels as part of a promotion for Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet, but presumably this will be a more involved celebration of cross-promotional brand synergy, which is the true magic of videogames as a medium.