AMD Teased Its New Line Of Graphics Cards In Fortnite’s AMD Battle Arena
After the recently-released Nvidia RTX 3000 graphics cards have seemed to win favour with the internet at large, AMD has started to tease its much-anticipated Big Navi series. It has been doing so in a way that many did not anticipate - by utilising popular battle royale Fortnite to generate hype.
AMD placed a subtle-but-clever Easter egg in Fortnite's creative mode last week, which went mostly unknown until a streamer found it. AMD-sponsored streamer GinaDarling was the first to have found this cryptic Easter egg, which was found in AMD's Battle Arena.
To get to the Easter egg, GinaDarling had to enter a phone booth, where she was sent to an AMD Radeon room with a console in the centre. Upon entering "6000," the model number for the long-anticipated new AMD cards, text appears on the wall in front of the console, which reads: "Something big is coming to the AMD Battle Arena!"
GinaDarling promptly tagged AMD's many social media accounts in search of an answer. Scott Herkelmen, CVP and GM at AMD, congratulated Gina on the find, but did not reveal any information on the upcoming line of AMD cards. The internet at large was already speculating what it could be, despite nothing being confirmed by AMD directly.
Many believe that the "big" thing coming to the AMD Battle Arena is a new version of AMD's ever-popular Big Navi GPU.
Many also believe that the Radeon RX 6000 will be revealed before the newest generation of consoles drops for the holidays, undercutting Nvidia in price by up to $100. According to fans, this is the reason that entering the numbers "6000" into the console revealed the secret message.
Click to enlargeAMD knows that this holiday season is going to bring a lot of competition, which is why they are trying to build up hype for both their high-end and affordable models of graphics cards. The creation of this Easter egg, and the map that contains it, definitely helped do just that. Fans have hardly been able to stop talking about the AMD Battle Arena since the discovery on September 3.
To pull off this Easter egg, Nvidia enlisted the help of popular Fortnite modder MakaMakes. MakaMakes helped build the AMD-themed Battle Arena. The Arena is located in Fortnite's creative mode, and players must be in a Free-for-All or Capture the Flag game.
Players can still reach the map by going into Fortnite's creative mode and entering the code 8651-9841-1639. To get to the secret console room, plyers must teleport via telephone booth to the room, where they can enter numbers that may or may not result in a secret message.
Click to enlargeSince the entire map is AMD-based, it is exciting to see that the company inadvertently confirmed their upcoming line of Big Navi cards by including this Easter egg in the map. They could have easily not said anything at all, simply alluding to older lines of graphics cards if players were to type the model number in to the console.
However, them choosing to say something, even as cryptic as "something big is coming to the AMD Battle Arena" proves that their newest line of cards might be game-changing for some players. It also hints that the release of the Big Navi line might bring new things to the AMD Battle Arena in Fornite. Players and streamers alike should keep an eye on the Battle Arena, especially as Big Navi's release draws near. AMD might have new things in store for both Fortnite and its Big Navi cards, and as time grows nearer, they just might reveal more information.
Until then, all players can do is speculate, but that isn't stopping them from posting their own theories about what could be in store for Big Navi.
Twitter user Coreteks believes that Radeon's newest line won't have any 8GB models; rather, they will be focusing on making affordable 16GB cards to undercut their direct competitor, Nvidia. According to Coreteks, this information comes from an AMD partner; however, it is still not verified. The AMD partner has chosen to remain unnamed, which has left many gamers sceptical about the validity of Coreteks' information.
AMD CEO Lisa Su did confirm that both Big Navi and Zen 3 will be released within this year, teasing that they would be available before the Xbox Series X and PS5 launch for the holidays. Many speculate that this release could fall around the beginning of October, but Su did not provide any more details regarding release.
Again, fans can only speculate on both the release and the performance of these cards until their release near the end of the year. Whilst waiting for news of AMD's new cards, players can enjoy the AMD Battle Arena in Fortnite, maybe even discovering new secrets and Easter eggs that give more concrete details on the new graphics cards.
Images via AMD | Epic Games
