A new Fortnite update is launching tonight, with Epic Games providing important news regarding maintenance and downtime.
The big news is that Fortnite servers have been taken offline for Fortnite Season 8 maintenance in the early hours of Monday morning, September 13.
Today’s situation is a little different, as Epic Games are planning on launching Chapter 2, Season 8, after it has been completed.
But from what has been shared so far, Fortnite servers are currently down and will undergo further maintenance later today.
So maintenance is being conducted in two parts and will probably leave gamers unable to play for most of the morning in the UK.
Fortnite downtime means that the game will not be playable for as long as the team needs to deploy the next update.
And this week’s Fortnite downtime will last longer due to the launch of Season 8; the good news is that when servers do go back online, there will be a ton of new content to check out on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC and Mobile platforms.
This follows on from a big Fortnite event called Operation Sky Fire, which made big changes in the overarching narrative leading into Season 8.
WHEN IS FORTNITE DOWNTIME FOR SEASON 8 STARTING?
Fortnite downtime for Season 8 has already started but the current countdown timer being displayed will disappear, and servers will go down fully, at 7am BST.
So while the game is not playable right now, Epic Games has warned that more downtime will be needed to complete everything.
That means Fortnite maintenance for Season 8 will continue past 7am BST and could last several hours afterwards.
The latest message from Epic Games reads: “Cubes are currently taking over Fortnite as a result of Operation: Sky Fire, shaping up the next Season…
“Server downtime for Chapter 2 Season 8 (v18.00) begins September 13 at 02:00 AM ET (06:00 UTC). Stay tuned for updates!
“During this Cube takeover, you’ll be unable to play Fortnite prior to server downtime. Prepare to defend the Island!
“Note: With the launch of the new Season, patch sizes will be larger than normal on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.”
We don’t have an exact time for how long Fortnite servers will be down but based on past launches, we would expect Fortnite Season 8 to be playable before 1pm BST.
Today, gamers saw the Fortnite Mothership blown to pieces and that’s expected to make some big changes to the current map.
There will also be a new Battle Pass to buy on September 13, as well as a new update to download.
And as confirmed by Epic Games above, the new download will be larger than usual due to all the new stuff coming to the game.
Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 8 will begin on Monday, September 13, after Fortnite maintenance has been completed.