Epic Games shocked the whole gaming world and its fans within the last few months. It all started with the end of Fortnite season X, where the developer made the bold decision to wipe the whole battle royale island out for good.

It was all sucked up into a black hole and the game was left unplayable (at least in battle royale) for the duration of time. It left parents bewildered and children thinking that they broke the game. But this turned out to be one of the best decisions ever as the game emerged as something mostly new.

When Fortnite Chapter 2 began, players enjoyed a new world with new areas, mechanics and a fresh metagame. This surprising reinvention of the game has come and gone. Players are getting ready for something new in Season 2. But that isn’t happening yet.

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 Extension Explained

The game was going to end the current battle royale season at a specific date and time, but that is now out the window in favor of a later date. Initially, we expected it to come to an end sometime in early to mid-December.

This was expected based on several factors. The first is that each season lasts for around 10 weeks or so. While this has varied in the past, it isn’t much more than that usually. The 10 weeks come from the 10 sets of weekly challenges offered to players.

When those challenges are up, Epic Games usually gives a week or two of extra time in that season for players to clean up any remaining challenges for a last-minute chance to reach the highly coveted tier 100 in the current battle pass.

Instead of lasting for 10 to 12 weeks (which would put in the middle of December or so when it ends), the current season will last until February 2020.

We have potentially another eight to 10 more weeks before the second season of Chapter 2 arrives. Why would Epic Games choose to do something like this when it never has before?

Why Epic Games Likely Chose to Extend This Season

The developer noted that there is a lot in store for players to enjoy during this holiday season that you won’t want to miss out; even citing last year’s 14 Days of Fortnite.

While no specific announcements were made for this holiday season, there are plenty of teases of what is to come. With so much that Epic Games is building towards in the remainder of this season, the developer must expand the current season into next year.

Epic Games concluded the blog post by stating that players should get ready for winter and everything that comes with it. This tells us a few things, just in those final words. There is the likely chance that the developer is doing too much this holiday season and needs to cut back on something.

In this case, it chose to cut back on the next season of battle royale so that it can focus on creating the best holiday experiences for players this winter. Then there is the more meta reason for the holiday season. Some real humans are working on these games and they deserve time with their families and friends, too.

To provide new experiences and give the employees the chance to enjoy the holidays, the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 extension was necessary. This is something that we respect and is worth the extension of this current season, if so.

History of Previously Extended Seasons in Battle Royale

One of the things that makes this Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 extension so crazy is that it is unprecedented in the two-plus years that battle royale has been around. Sure, we have seen extensions previously for seasons of the game, but this is, by far, the longest one yet.

Looking back at the 10 seasons that make up Chapter 1 that preceded the current one, we can see that only a few ever had an extension of sorts. For six whole seasons of the game and just over a year, battle royale had followed a steady stream of only going for around 10 or 11 weeks and then ending.

The next season would immediately follow this by kicking off a new battle pass, cosmetic items, island changes and more. It all changed a year ago with the release of Season 7. This, too, was the holiday season for that winter, which only adds more layers to this current situation.

When it came time in February for the holiday season to come to an end, Epic Games wasn’t done just yet. It extended the current season by a period and compensated players in exchange. New challenges were added in the form of overtime challenges.

These challenges helped players who were behind catch up on the battle pass and it rewarded every player who completed them with a free battle pass for the next season. Speaking of the next season, Season 8, 9 and X all had overtime challenges of their own.

This extension became a staple feature and has been for the last four seasons. While the other three seasons didn’t offer a free battle pass, they did offer unique rewards of their own. It lead us to the current extension that is more like doubling this current season rather than adding a couple more weeks.

What the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 Extension Means for the Battle Pass

Typically, every season, there is a new battle pass with 100 new tiers of items to collect. Skins, experience boosts, v-bucks and more are earned throughout the tiers.

This is the motivation for a player to keep playing throughout the new season to see what is offered. But since Season 2 is still far away, what is going to happen to the current battle pass? There are already plenty of players who have reached the max tier 100 in battle royale this season.

What’s unfortunate about this is that the season hasn’t reached its initial ending spot just yet and those players are out of items to earn. Now, they must not only wait a few more weeks but a couple more months to enjoy the next battle pass in the game.

In all honesty, we don’t expect Epic Games to release a new battle pass for Season 1 as that is likely being saved for Season 2. But we do think that something will be done to help those players who are now waiting for more content in the next season.

We think that there will be an extension of the current battle pass so that players have more tiers to enjoy. It might not be as detailed or long as the typical 100 tiers each season, but it could allow for more items to enjoy and more reason to keep playing the game.

Is 14 Days of Fortnite Returning?

Beyond an extended battle pass, we expect that there will be new challenges for players to complete to earn those new items. There are only 10 weeks of challenges shown currently in the game, but we do predict that there will be more in the next couple of months.

A large portion of that can be attributed to the 14 Days of Fortnite. If you played the game last year, you would recognize this popular event. It added a ton of new challenges to complete for a limited amount of time with exclusive rewards themed around the holidays.

We do suspect something like this mode soon. The way that Epic Games words the extension announcement, though, does seem to hint that the name for the holiday event this year will be slightly different.

Regardless, there is no doubt that some holiday battle royale event will happen with special wintery rewards available. After all, the blog post confirms that for the community.

What the Teased Live Event Could Be

One other teased in the announcement post is that Epic Games is getting ready for a new live experience in battle royale.

Live events have been random these past few seasons. It could be another concert, a game-changing event that changes how the island looks this season, another showdown with giant creatures and more.

The possibilities are truly endless, but if we had to guess, we would suspect that it would be something holiday-related like a Santa-like moment or a light show.

What Needs to Happen This Season and Our Predictions

Beyond all of that, there is a lot that needs to happen with this Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 extension. It is one thing if the season is extended a couple of weeks, but a couple of months is a whole other situation. Players need content to enjoy in the game.

There are a lot of things that need to happen and that we predict will happen for the duration of this winter season. A winter holiday event must occur in the game and that isn’t something that we are worried about. But we do want to see the island change a bit for the holidays.

With the start of each new season, there is likely a new named area or region changed on the island. We aren’t asking for new areas or anything like that, but we would like to see the current areas decorate for the winter season.

We could see places like Misty Meadows and Lazy Lake go crazy with lights, Christmas trees and other items. It could even mean turning a large portion (or the whole island) into a snowy area, much like what season seven did for the old island.

Also, there needs to be new game modes for players to enjoy and have reason to come back to battle royale. We want to see a major collaboration in December, specifically, with Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker.

The movie will release in late December and a limited-time event that takes advantage of it would be perfect in battle royale. Epic Games has already worked with Disney multiple times now with the Avengers, so a Star Wars collaboration makes a lot of sense.

And with the Stormtrooper outfit recently, it is likely that it was a tease for what is to come. We would love a large-scale event mode where players are divided up between the Sith or Jedi and battle it out in massive 50 versus 50 action with both sides having force abilities and lightsabers.

This would be a great way to keep players invested over the holidays for a couple of weeks plus give a chance for some new cosmetics. We could see skins for popular characters like Rey, Kylo Ren, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and so on.

When Is Chapter 2 Season 1 Ending and Season 2 Starting?

With this extension now in effect, we now have a new season one ending date. Originally set to end around December 12, we must wait until February 2020. No specific date has is set yet.

This means that Season 2 starts immediately after the end of Season 1one. Until then, players can keep busy throughout December and January with the current season.