Here’s When You Can Download ‘Fortnite’ Chapter 5, Season 2 Update

Fortnite remains down, and while there have been some updates, none have been accurate or definitive. Clearly something has gone very, very wrong behind the scenes and Epic Games does not have a solid timetable on a fix.

Originally, the game publisher informed gamers that the update would be available early Friday morning. At around 9 am ET they updated that to an 8 hour delay. That would put the Season 2 release at around 4 pm ET.

That was updated again at around 4 pm ET with another update that states:

We’re continuing the work to bring Fortnite back online. Players will be able to pre-download an updated version of v29.00 in approximately 5 hours.

We’re grateful for your patience and can’t wait for everyone to be able to jump in.

The key bit in this statement is not that the game will be live in five hours (or in three hours from the time of this posting) but that the pre-download for the new season will become available then. That means that around 9pm ET players can download the update but that does not mean that the servers will go live. It’s possible that you’ll be able to play the game the moment it’s downloaded, but it’s also possible that the game will be down for hours after you’re able to pre-load the update.

At this point, we just don’t know. It’s not quite as insane as the black hole that once devoured Fortnite for days, but it’s still a shockingly long downtime for a game that almost never has this kind of extended, unplanned server outage.

Many fans are clamoring for compensation. I think that’s pretty silly when it comes to a game you don’t actually have to pay to play, personally. You want a free Battle Pass or free V-Bucks because you had to wait a bit longer for an update? How about instead of that, you go play something else. There are a plethora of other games to play. Expand your horizons, young padawans.

(Though I do think Epic Games should extend an olive branch to its players—quite literally an olive branch pickaxe. It would not only be funny, it would fit the Greek mythology theme quite perfectly. You can have that for free, Epic).

Stay tuned. This could be down a lot longer or come back any minute. I’ll be on Warzone.