The battle royales of Fortnite are now more cold-blooded than ever.

For the past week, a mysterious ‘Ice Sphere’ has been appearing in the multiplayer FPS game – heralding some sort of future event. After much speculation and anticipation, the object finally exploded, revealing the evil Ice King – whom proceeded to transform the entire map into a winter hinterland.

You can check out footage of the island freezing over below.

While the only new content so far seems to be some winter-themed costumes, it also looks like players might get some form of Players-Vs-Enemies (PvE) horde mode soon. The event announcement tweet from Epic Games heavily implies this to be the case.

A new kingdom rises. Prepare for battle – dive in now to take on the Ice Legion and survive the storm! pic.twitter.com/yvcHgCIYvk

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) January 19, 2019

We’ll report back if we hear more about the event. For now, we wish all Fortnite players a merry winter season!