What's Kirby doing in Fortnite's new trailer?

Blink and you'll miss it, but Kirby is in Fortnite's latest trailer.

As spotted by GoNintendo, Kirby pops up in the first seconds of the official Fortnite trailer for its recently-released Party Royale mode. You can see Nintendo's famous pink blob bopping away on the screen in the background.

Curious! Even more curious is Kirby is blurred out in the equivalent video uploaded to the Xbox and PlayStation YouTube channels. I imagine some mind-numbing legal stipulation means it must be so, but I've asked Epic about it.

For some reason the Fortnite video hasn't been uploaded to Nintendo's YouTube channel. Poor Kirby!

So what's Kirby doing in a Fortnite trailer, apart from, you know, having a good old time? Is it a tease that Kirby will soon appear in the biggest game on Earth? Or perhaps just a fun Easter egg?

Perhaps it's a nod to the fact Kirby and Fortnite have a history. In March 2019, a tiny Fortnite logo appeared on an official Nintendo wallpaper for 3DS game Kirby's Epic Yarn. This logo was eventually edited out by Nintendo, but of course the internet never forgets.

All this is pretty unlikely. What we see in the Fortnite trailer - the bit Kirby is in anyway - is the live stage of Party Royale. Here, Epic streams DJs (Deadmau5, Steve Aoiki and Dillon Francis headlined the live premiere for the no-combat mode), who use footage of their own making, into the game. I suspect Kirby slipped into the world of Fortnite accidentally, rather than as part of some elaborate ARG for a big Nintendo Fortnite crossover.

Still! Kirby and Fortnite make for unlikely - but also kind of cute - bedfellows. To be honest, I wouldn't mind a Fortnite mode in which you could play as Kirby, sucking up anything and everything that stands in your way. After all, Kirby Battle Royale is an actual real life video game.

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