In just a few days, the Fortnite World Cup is set to begin, but developer Epic Games thinks that shouldn't get in the way of actually playing the game. The Fortnite creator just launched a new feature that's sure to turn hardcore players' heads: full picture-in-picture (PiP) streaming. With this innovation, you can keep an eye on the massive World Cup competition while playing your own Fortnite game.
Clearly meant for those with a single-display setup (and anyone who can actively pay attention to two games like that), it's designed to ensure you don't have to miss a single thing that happens during your game or the tournament, in which there's a cool $30 million prize pool at stake. It may not be the largest prize pool for a game out there, but that's still a lot of cash.
To activate the PiP feature, you can simply drop into a Fortnite lobby when the festivities kick off on Friday, June 26 and click the "Watch Now!" Button seen in the upper right corner of the screen. A Durrburger-centric mini-game will launch as the Picture-in-Picture screen loads. When it's finished, you can click the video stream to enlarge the picture and watch in full-screen mode, or you can get on to playing Fortnite as usual.
If you opt for playing Fortnite matches, the PiP window will launch in the lower left corner of your screen while you get down to business. You can watch the Fortnite World Cup Finals, which will be loaded by default, or you can watch a specific streamer by heading to the "Compete" tab from the Fortnite game lobby and selecting a competitor from the onscreen leaderboard. Keep in mind that if you decide to watch the match while in-game, you'll get a mixture of in-game audio and the audio streaming from the World Cup broadcast. There will unfortunately be no subtitles or additional accessibility options for the PiP stream.
If you think all this multitasking business is going to keep you from being able to concentrate, you can just opt out of viewing it too. Close the window once, and Epic Games states it will "remember your preference." You can do it in-game as well by opening the main menu and clicking the "Stop Video" button at the bottom of the options list. You're good to go from there.
Not interested in watching and playing at the same time? The Fortnite World Cup will still be available to view at all the typical avenues as well: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and all the usual suspects. As far as when you can expect the action to get started, the first day of World Cup events kicks off on Friday, July 26 and goes on through Sunday, July 28.
As the week draws to a close, competitors are practicing and gearing up for the massive Fortnite tournament, where solo players, teams, and even celebrities will be competing in a massive battle for supremacy at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City this weekend. It's going to be a monumental occasion for Fortnite fans (and battle royale enthusiasts in general), so if you're a follower and don't want to have serious FOMO, you'll definitely want to clear your schedule to make sure you can keep an eye out for the winners to emerge. If you're at home, you can go ahead and keep practicing for the inevitable 2020 Fortnite World Cup – you don't even have to stop playing the game.
