Another well-known Japanese location has been reproduced on an island in Fortnite, and it’s Osaka’s famous nightlife district of Dotonbori.
The local organization Meta Osaka released a new island that reproduces the scenery of Dotonbori, with the canal and its bridges, and iconic landmarks like the Glico runner (albeit the branding has been changed).
It serves as a setting for 4v4 team battles in which the players are divided among a Blue Team and Pink Team. Yet the goal isn’t shooting each other, but painting as much of the ground as possible with their team’s color simply by running on it.
That being said, there are some items that can be used to give your team an advantage or hinder the opposing team.
It can be accessed via the map code 7175-4564-4941 and it’s already playable in Fortnite.
If you’re curious, you can take a look at a trailer below, showing the island in Fortnite and gameplay.
On June 21, an esports event named “Dotonbori Esports Athletic Meet” will be hosted at the Pivot BASE Cafe & Bar ＠Dotonbori, a concept cafe owned by “Creole,” which is a popular takoyaki shop in Dotonbori.
It’s Osaka, after all. Of course, Takoyaki had to be involved.
The event is expected to host about 40 participants with ages ranging between elementary students and junior high school students.
The goal is to promote the popularity of the area by leveraging esports, which are popular among the younger generations, creating a window on the street of Osaka through which players from all over the world can experience the charm of the city.
In the accompanying press release, Hideaki Mori, CEO of Meta Osaka mentioned that recreating Dotonbori in the digital space was the first thing he thought about when he founded the company in 2023.
He added that in 2024, Osaka Prefecture established the Osaka Esports Roundtable (OeGG) with the goal of making Osaka a Mecca for esports, and Meta Osaka is aiming to contribute to that effort.
There are esports events scheduled to happen at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, and he’s confident that this project will be an attraction that will help revitalize the local economy.
We also get a comment from Creole CEO Yukihiro Kasai, who mentions that it’s gratifying for local businesses to see Dotonbori appear in a game with so many users around the world, and they’re grateful that Fortnite gives them the chance to introduce the area to new customers.
While Dotonbori is seeing many visitors at the moment, this is a time of uncertainty about the future, so this kind of opportunity is valuable for the local shopping district.
If you’re unfamiliar with Dotonbori, it’s one of the main tourist destinations and nightlife districts in Osaka, Japan. If you’re a gamer, you may already be familiar with the district, especially if you played the Like a Dragon/Yakuza series.
The district of “Sotenbori” portrayed in multiple games of the series is, in fact, a renamed reproduction of Dotonbori, exactly like Kamurocho is a renamed reproduction of Kabukicho in Tokyo.
Japanese organizations and even local governments have been very active in using Fortnite’s growing metaverse to promote local attractions, like Funai Castle, Gunkanjima, and Shibuya.
