Tokyo-based developer Mondrian and Oita Future Town Development announced the release in Fortnite of an island bringing back a castle that was lost a long time ago.
The level, titled “Oita – Funai Castle Domination,” island code 6670-4276-1010 is a capture-the-flag map set in Funai Castle in Oita City in Oita prefecture.
What makes this special is the fact that Funai Castle burned down in 1743. Parts of the castle were rebuilt in the real world in the 19th Century, but most of it including the central tenshu keep are gone.
Now Fortnite users can experience the castle as it was in two modes, battle and exploration.
Below you can check out the trailer and a few official screenshots straight from the press release.
The officially-stated goals for the project are allowing people to relive history in the Metaverse, stimulate urban development, sharing Oita’s appeal with the world, and launching a space in the Metaverse that can be used for education, tourism, and even e-sports.
Mondrian has been working with local Japanese governments to reproduce a variety of culturally and historically significant locations, such as Fortnite maps, using the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s 3D city model named Plateau.
So, basically this counts as both an application of Fortnite’s growing metaverse and as a digital twin
This is also not the only initiative by Japanese local governments to use Fortnite to showcase their heritage and locations. Japan has been quite active in this kind of endeavor, perhaps not surprisingly.
Epic Games’ Fortnite is available for pretty much every current platform excluding iOS outside of Europe.
