Fortnite Gets Weezer Island As ’90s Band Drops New Album
In conjunction with the release of their new album, popular ’90s band Weezer has joined forces with the hit battle royale game Fortnite to create an in-game Weezer island. Players can access “Weezer World,” which features tunes from the band’s latest record The Black Album, through the game’s creative mode.
The new location is reportedly modeled after a theme park, with Weezer’s logo covering the entrance, according to Engadget. The world features a series of puzzle-like mini-games and players can even find a jukebox to listen to four unreleased songs from the album.
Weezer’s lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Rivers Cuomo hinted at the collaboration in early February with a simple tweet: “Weezer (The Fortnite Album).”
On Friday, the band’s official Twitter account shared a short video of the band logo – a flashing purple W with two F’s as wings – and announced the official release.
“And now it’s finally time to kick back & relax on your very own island in the sun. Stop by the one of a kind Weezer World amusement park in Season 8 of @FortniteGame. Find it in creative mode and listen to the sweet sounds of #TheBlackAlbum while playing #FortniteCreative,” the tweet read.
Fortnite, which was initially released as an online game in July 2017 for all platforms, has a history of musical collaborations. Most recently, music producer and DJ Marshmello took over the entire game for 10 minutes with an in-game concert last month. All players were transported to a virtual stage at the same time where they could watch the concert in a special game mode, The Verge reported. The event brought in 10.7 million players, breaking a record for an in-game event day.
Fortnite’s latest collaboration is with aging rock stars Weezer https://t.co/m1pfnQPcKP pic.twitter.com/JphWfn6A0y
— The Verge (@verge) March 1, 2019
The Epic Games-created title also featured a Thanos game mode in May 2018 in collaboration with Marvel’s Avengers movie franchise.
Many game critics note that Fornite is an ideal platform for musicians to expose their work to younger audiences and expand fan bases, which is likely why many artists like Marshmello and Weezer have tried getting their hands in the game.
Weezer’s The Black Album marks their second release in 2019. They first released The Teal Album, which featured a series of covers, in January after seeing the wide success of their rendition of Toto’s song “Africa.”
The Black Album was initially meant for release much sooner, but Cuomo explained that the viral “Africa” cover ultimately put the album on hold, according to NME.
“‘Africa’ blew up so big, it put the original Black Album on hold indefinitely, but now we have a much cooler record,” Cuomo said in a statement.
