Fortnite’s new countdown timer now appears in the missile silo in the villain’s base

Another countdown has appeared in Fortnite: Battle Royale after today’s 4.4 update, and it seems to be teasing impending doom.

An image of the new holographic countdown was found early this morning shortly after the update went live and posted to Reddit by a user named “AnarchyDT.” You can see the ominous image below.

Last weekend the countdown was only seen on televisions in the Switch version of the game, while the villain’s base projected a hologram of a missile. Now that the countdown is directly in front of the giant rocket inside of the base, what comes next seems inevitable. What’s odd about this timer, however, is that it appears to be counting down to this Saturday, June 23.

Previous datamines have shown that the rocket will be made available to launch in-game at some point soon, with some files indicating that it could be as early as this afternoon. It’s unclear if it will be a short-term gameplay mechanic or something more.

Fortnite teased something similar to this with in-game hints at the end of season three, leading to a meteor strike that changed up the map and added unique items like hop rocks. It’s likely that the game is yet again teasing upcoming changes.

Right now, season four is scheduled to come to an end in the next couple of weeks, as week 10’s challenges are due to unlock on July 5. It’s possible that the new season, and whatever big event comes with it, could begin as early as July 10 or as late as July 12.

For now, it seems like the game is preparing itself for another big bang.