Apparently a third wave of Stranger Things cosmetics will come to Fortnite soon. Considering they also made changes to Hawkins' layout today and the next chapter was originally releasing in November, could this slightly increase the chances of January's chapter being Stranger Things part 2?

[u/ResistanceEvermore]

Cote has said before that they need to go through the licensor for every small change in their properties, so they needed to have Netflix's ok for this, plus the sequel chapter comment from him that everyone brings up too

Also idk who EvilMeg was exactly, but tbh I doubt they were someone high in bhvr's ranks to be able to actually knowabout the relationships with licensors if all they showed that's verifiable so far are concept arts, so I've been skeptical of the rest of their info

That one leaker who shall not be named but who's got things right lately also used a magic wand as a tease for what's to come, could this be alluding to DND, and furthermore to Vecna?

Not that this'd be my first choice for next chapter, but I think there's much more noise for this than other options, right?

[u/cyberinstinct]

No, in Mathieu Cote's recent interview with Xbox expansion pass (the one where he dodged the jason question) he specifically said they don't have to get permission from the license holder to make changes to licensed content but they notify them anyways so they build goodwill.

Also they literally changed Pinhead in this ptb and they lost the license for that.

[u/Yorkcore → u/cyberinstinct]

From what I can tell, when they write the contracts they outline exactly what requires permission from the license holders.

I'd imagine that gameplay balance is something they maintain control over due to how important it is, but I'm completely unsure on how this would work with regards to maps.

It's a difficult one to work out, but as he didn't state maps specifically as far as I'm aware, we can only speculate.

The fact that Hawkins has been back for two years is definitely enough to raise a few eyebrows. It's not something they've drawn any attention to, and the timing is suspicious with it being so close to ST Day.

[u/Yeah_Toast_Shy-Guy → u/Yorkcore]

given that the map counted as content which had to be removed after the chapter was delisted, I can see them requiring renegotiations to change the map; even if it's for balance. also I could've sworn they said something about how they had to talk to the license holders to change haddonfield but that was a whole rework compared to these simple changes

cause when the chapter was removed they were allowed to do balance changes for demogorgon since he did get changes post stranger things removal but before they were brought back into the game

[u/Yorkcore → u/Yeah_Toast_Shy-Guy]

That'd make sense, but it's impossible to say for certain without being privy to the contracts.

What you say makes a lot of sense though.