It seems that rumors are pointing to Kratos from the God of War series being the next big third-party character to land on Fortnite's Battle Island paradise. Specifically, this will be Kratos as he appears in the 2018 PS4 series reboot, complete with his thick beard and Leviathan Axe. The character will presumably be exclusive to PlayStation platforms and will be joining a bevy of Marvel heroes and Din Djarin from The Mandalorian as recent additions to the ever-growing library of possible cosmetics. The recently revealed Season 5 saw Fortnite's cast of characters find the "Zero Point," a way to allow for many future guest stars from all across the entertainment multiverse.
As far as traveling across gaming universes, this won't be Kratos' first rodeo. Across several generations, the titular God of War has been PlayStation's go-to guest character in several franchises, as he's proven to be rather flexible for cross-promotion purposes. In fighting games, the Ghost of Sparta has taken up arms in both 2011's Mortal Kombat on PS3 and the PSP-exclusive Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. He battled as a secret boss in Shovel Knight, served as a pre-order bonus for ModNation Racers, and even hit the links in Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. Perhaps most importantly, he was one of the many characters to battle in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, so he's got plenty of non-God of War experience heading into Fortnite.
While Kratos has not officially been announced as an upcoming skin, the teases have already begun and the leaks are starting to spread. The official PlayStation Twitter shared a reality log from Fortnite detailing a god slayer that sounds specifically like the star of God of War. In addition, an ad showing Kratos' model in the Fortnite style (along with some images of his weaponry) have leaked via the PlayStation Store in some regions, which would be hard to fake since it's coming from multiple sources, including Twitter user HYPEX. All signs point to Kratos hitting the game sooner rather than later.
Of course, Fortnite is not a PlayStation-exclusive franchise, and the addition of Kratos poses some questions as to the other versions of the game. Fortnite is already crossplay enabled across all consoles, mobile, and PC, which means that players on Xbox or Switch might be in a position to fight alongside Kratos. Or, as is the case in games like Rocket League, they might fight alongside a generic skin that stands in for the platform-exclusive content. Players will have to wait for a more official announcement of the crossover for more details about that.
Epic Games is slowly bringing the fevered dreams of Ernest Cline to life with Fortnite, but the team is doing it in a way that feels just slightly more authentic than the Ready Player series ever could. By bringing together disparate characters and universes into a loose narrative structure, the developer has managed to make everything from a Travis Scott concert to an in-game showing of Inception make sense alongside battle buses and sentient machine gun-toting bananas. As much as older folk might hate to admit it, that's a pretty cool concept that leaves a lot of room for experimentation and awesome crossovers.
Fortnite is available for all platforms.
Source: PlayStation, HYPEX