A marketing campaign designed to promote recruitment in the British Army using a custom-made Fortnite map looks to have been taken offline.
Social media posts and a slickly-produced trailer for the British Army recruitment drive have now been removed, Eurogamer has spotted.
Their so-far unexplained disappearance follows a backlash to the campaign, which was set to focus on a new Fortnite experience and be promoted by high profile influencers.
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Social media posts by the British Army last week raised eyebrows, with the use of Fortnite – a game enjoyed by millions of younger players – called into question.
“Check it out,” a now-deleted social media post by the official @ArmyJobs account stated. “@Elzthewitch and @yungfilly1 battle to Be The Best on our new Fortnite experience Operation: Belong.”
A trailer for the map showed Fortnite characters – including the game's main default character Jonesy – diving into action, firing weapons and taking on an army boot camp-style assault course.
The British Army had planned to hold a livestream this week on Wednesday, 24th January via Twitch to show off the map, with British YouTuber and musician Yung Filly plus YouTuber and presenter Elz The Witch.
It's unclear if that livestream will still go ahead, but posts by the pair advertising the event on their own social media channels have also been deleted.
Reactions to the initial campaign were mixed, despite its trailer stating the promotion was “not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Epic Games.”
This line is required by Epic Games' Fortnite Island Creator Rules, a document which governs what you can and cannot do with the game's creative mode options.
But a further line in that document also states:
“Commercial content and sponsors must follow all the content rules above, and the Epic Content Guidelines, and must not […] promote enrollment in the military.”
Eurogamer contacted Epic Games for comment, and was told the promotion was currently “undergoing moderation.”
“This island has not yet been published to Fortnite (ie. it is not accessible to players) and is undergoing moderation, as does all content in the Fortnite Ecosystem, and must adhere to our Content Guidelines and Creator Rules,” an Epic Games spokesperson told Eurogamer.
“Are you proud of this?” reads one reply to Yung Filly's now-deleted tweet promoting the campaign. “Why are you recruiting literal children?!” wrote another.
In 2022, controversial US government-backed shooter America's Army shut down, after years of headlines it was being used as a recruitment tool.
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