Fortnite developer Epic Games has taken the game offline for a surprise update. With the start of the new season still fresh in the mind of gaming fans, Epic has disabled matchmaking and taken down servers in order to release update 24.01. Fortnite update 24.01 has an 8am GMT UK launch time on March 20. The release of the new update coincides with a period of server downtime, which is expected to last for at least for at least an hour.
The news was announced by Epic Games on Twitter: “Downtime for v24.01 starts at 04:00 AM ET (08:00 UTC)! Matchmaking will be disabled 30 minutes before downtime.”
While there’s no official downtime schedule, the game should be back online between 9-10am UK time.
Based on Epic’s tweet, the new update won’t make any major changes to the game.
Indeed, according to Fortnite insiders like Shiina, the update will mainly focus on getting things ready for the release of Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
Launching on March 22, Unreal Editor for Fortnite lets fans publish games and experience directly into Fortnite.
Budding content creators can even develop and test new Fortnite islands in real-time.
“Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite,” Epic explains.
“With many of Unreal Engine 5’s powerful tools and workflows at your fingertips, including custom asset import, modelling, materials and VFX, Sequencer and Control Rig, you’ll have a whole new world of options for producing and publishing games and experiences for Fortnite that can be enjoyed by millions of players.”
Any additional gameplay tweaks and changes will be announced by Epic once downtime comes to an end.
Express Online will update this article with the full list of patch notes once they are announced by Epic Games.