Summary
FortniteChapter 5 Season 2 has been delayed over some unexpected issues. The forthcomingFortniteseason will consequently be released at least eight hours later than expected.
FortniteChapter 5 Season 1 officially endedearlier today, March 8. As per usual, the conclusion of the game’s 28th season saw Epic take its servers offline for maintenance in order to prepare its infrastructure for the next big content drop. The downtime was initially expected to end around noon ET on March 8.
But the release of the hit battle royale game’s next season has now been postponed, with Epic extending theFortniteChapter 5 Season 2 downtimeby an additional eight hours. The company cited “an unexpected issue” that cropped up during maintenance as the reason for the decision, without elaborating on the matter. What it did say is that the eight-hour downtime extension is a provisional measure that may still be followed by another delay, depending on the developer’s progress in the hours ahead.
Season delays are neither new toFortnitenor unique to Epic’s hit game; software development can be difficult to reconcile with the kind of tight content timelines that successful live-service titles tend to follow. Hiccups of this sort are hence an occasional occurrence. The good news for fans is that Epic’s decision to postpone Chapter 5 Season 2 by a mere eight hours suggests the developer is confident it can resolve whatever issues it’s currently facing relatively swiftly. Taking this newly communicated delay into account and assuming no further postponements take place, it is possible that the 29thFortniteseason will drop around 5pm ET on March 8.
March 8, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
March 8, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
March 8, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
March 8, 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM
March 8, 10:00 PM – March 9, 12:00 AM
March 9, 6:00 AM – 8:00 AM
March 9, 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
March 9, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
These are only estimations based on the downtime of previousFortniteseasons and Epic’s latest maintenance status update. The times may vary by server/region, as more players might be trying to queue into matches than usual once servers go back online.
Looking at historical trends, it is plausible that the end ofFortnite’s ongoing downtime won’t immediately allow most players to queue into matches. In the past, major update postponements usually led to huge traffic spikes once the delayed content was finally out, resulting in sizable queues. This is likely to happen this time around as well, especially in the U.S., given how the downtime is currently projected to end come Friday evening for stateside players, which is normally a busy period forFortniteeven when it’s not preceded by its servers spending an entire day offline.
Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2 (Season 29) New Locations
Epic previously revealed thatFortniteChapter 5 Season 2 is set to end on May 24. Should the developer manage to overcome these ongoing issues and still launch it on March 8, those plans will presumably be left unchanged. The studio promised to share another update on the status of its maintenance efforts as soon as new information becomes available.
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