^{Image: Epic Games}

Fortnite Chapter 5 is introducing a mysterious Lego survival sandbox game this week.

Fortnite Chapter 5 launched earlier this week with the announcement that three whole new game modes are coming this season: a racing game called Rocket Racing, a rhythm game called Fortnite Festival and a survival sandbox game called Lego Fortnite. In Lego Fortnite, players will be playing as Lego minifigures themed after in-game characters and skins.

Lego Fortnite launches on December 7, and we now have our first trailer for the mode:

What is Lego Fortnite?

Epic Games has described Lego Fortnite as a whole new, “survival crafting game,” that will coexist with Fortnite's other modes, including Battle Royale. More than 1,200 of Fortnite’s existing skins will be available in the mode as special Lego Styles, which basically means that most of your skins are going to turn into minifigures. The Lego mode was originally revealed during Chapter 5’s beginning ‘Big Bang’ event, which showcased three new modes coming to Fortnite over the course of its first season.

Lego Fortnite appears to be a sandbox survival game with an emphasis on crafting, much like Minecraft or Valheim. The brief tease of the mode we got during the Big Bang event suggested that it would be set in a wide-open world containing multiple biomes, where players can work together to build tools and structures while exploring the environment around them.

The cinematic trailer above suggests as much, even if it doesn’t contain any actual gameplay. We see a Fortnite character drop into a Lego world and gleefully start making a home for themselves. They build a cosy home out of Legos and expand that into a farm with a sheep pen, crops and food. Once they meet up with more friends, they start crafting weapons to fight other threats in the world - from wolves in the jungles to subterranean skeletons and bloodthirsty monsters. It looks like co-op is the name of the game here, though it’s unclear how many players the mode will accommodate at once.

Lego Fortnite has likely been in the works since Epic and Lego announced their partnership in April last year, promising to, “build a space in the metaverse that’s fun, entertaining, and made for kids and families.” Lego and Sony proceeded to pour $2 billion into Epic’s metaverse, and now we’re seeing the results: three entire new multiplayer games within Fortnite, all existing and getting new content simultaneously.

Whether or not Lego Fortnite can surpass Battle Royale in popularity, however, remains to be seen. We’ll find out when the mode launches this week on December 7.

Fortnite's new open-world Lego survival game launches this week