UPDATE: Fortnite servers are starting to shut down for today’s Battle Royale update 13.40, with downtime scheduled for 9am BST, or 4am ET, if you live in the United States.
The maintenance is expected to last for at least an hour, with the latest message from Epic Games adding: “A new game update races around the corner. Fortnite v13.40, the Joy Ride Update, drives in tomorrow, August 5. Downtime begins at 4 AM ET (08:00 UTC).”
“We’re beginning to disable services in preparation for v13.40. If you’re currently in a session, you can continue to play until downtime starts at approx. 4 AM ET (08:00 UTC).”
ORIGINAL: Fortnite update 13.40 is being launched today, August 5, across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and Mobile. Fans know exactly what the new patch includes, although there could be a few other surprises we don’t know about too. Promising to be one of the most significant updates yet for Season 3, Epic Games has confirmed that its launch is just hours away.
The August patch promises to bring a variety of new vehicles to the Fortnite map, as well as plenty of bug fixes. Epic Games has also confirmed they will be shutting down servers, meaning the game will be unplayable for a short period.
This will make for the big JoyRide Patch, which was initially delayed from its previous release date in July.
New vehicles of all shapes and sizes have been promised, and data miners believe that they could be used as a devastating tool against structures.
But it will be interesting to see just how powerful these new items will be as we have also heard about a few limitations too.
While Fortnite Cars will be able to zoom around the island, they will need to stop for regular fuel pit stops, making them susceptible to ambushes.
Jerry Cans may help avoid those issues, but it will be interesting to find out just how accessible vehicles will be in Fortnite.
The only downside with today’s update is that it means the game servers could be unavailable for several hours.
The good news is that we know what time Fortnite downtime will be starting, and a rough outline for how long it might last.
WHEN ARE FORTNITE SERVERS GOING DOWN?
According to Epic Games, Fortnite servers are scheduled to go offline on Wednesday, August 5, on PS4, Xbox, PC, Switch and Mobile.
This means that Battle Royale and Save the World modes will be unplayable for the duration.
Epic estimates downtime could last up to three hours; however, it’s more likely that everything will be completed much sooner.
Recent updates have only taken around an hour to deploy, meaning that cars could be in Fortnite by early morning in the UK.
Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite server downtime and maintenance will begin at 9am, BST.
This means that Fortnite will be unavailable in the United States from 4am ET onward, for however long maintenance lasts.
Epic Games will tell fans when the update is available to download by posting a new message on Twitter.
Other details, such as patch notes, could also be released after the new Fortnite update has made available to gamers.
The updates notes will list all the essential stuff about today’s changes and could give a detailed rundown on how reliable vehicles can be.
Some fans have predicted that the new vehicles could be removed within 24-hours of their deployment.
This is based on how other big launches have gone in the past, where bugs have needed to be squashed before the system could work correctly.