Fortnite Season 9 downtime has been confirmed for today, May 15 on all platforms.
A new game update is being released today, with the downside being that servers will need to be offline for a short period.
This will be the first major update and maintenance performed by Epic Games since the start of Season 9 last week.
The good news is that we know when maintenance will begin and what roughly to expect in the patch notes.
FORTNITE DOWNTIME NEWS
Fortnite downtime means that servers will be taken offline by Epic Games and a new update released.
This will be the first major patch during Season 9 and means that the game will be inaccessible for a short period.
Epic Games has not said how long maintenance will last today but we do know the time it will begin.
The development team has now confirmed that Fortnite downtime for Update 9.01 will begin at 9am, BST, on May 15.
“Get up close and personal when the v.9.01 update releases tomorrow, May 15. Downtime begins at 4 AM ET(0800UTC),” the Epic Games announcement explains.
As hinted at in the message above, a new weapon is being released this week as part of the new update. And a new in-game news announcement has confirmed that the Tactical Assault Rifle will be that new weapon.
The new teaser comes with the Fortnite description: “This robust and precise assault rifle is the ideal option for tight quarters.”
Data miners first spotted the new weapon as part of the big Season 9 update and already have the lowdown on some of its stats.
The Tactical Assault Rifle will come in Rare, Epic and Legendary forms and will deal damage of 22/23/24 with a fire rate of 7.
The Legendary version will feature the best reload time at 1.98 seconds and will stock light bullets.
The gun also appears to share a tie-in with the new John Wick movie as it shares a symbol on its side.
There’s a chance that a new event will be revealed by Epic Games later today, alongside the official patch notes.
Update notes revealing all the big changes being made today are expected to be shared around the same time servers go offline. After Fortnite servers go back online, Battle Royale fans will then need to download a new update.
This will be vital as it will contain all the new content for the game and you won’t be able to play again until you’re up to date. When this happens, you can probably expect a little disruption when trying to join games, as there will be a lot of interest from fans.
And there could be a few surprises thrown in with Season 9’s first major update, so fans will want to keep an eye on the official social media feeds.