How Fortnite Is Apologizing For Server Downtime

Fortnite Rewards
(Image credit: Epic Games)

Epic Games' Fortnite continues to grow hand-over-fist thanks to the Battle Royale mode, which has exponentially increased its player base since launching last year. Well, because of the growth the development studio has also faced more downtime than usual due to servers being overloaded. Epic has decided to apologize to its audience for said downtime.

Over on the official Epic Games forum, the company detailed a number of gifts and goodies for Fortnite players who have toughed it out during the servers being down since issuing version 2.3.0 of Fortnite. There will be 20 free Battle Stars added to your Battle Pass progression, along with 1600 seasonal gold added to the player's profile in the Save The World campaign mode. The 1600 gold can be used in the Event Store to purchase items and cash shop goods for your characters.

The rewards will be given out to players by the time patch 2.4.0 is ready to release.

Some people began asking about those who have completed the Battle Pass progression and are already above level 70. Others asked what they could do if they don't play the Save The World mode.

While Epic Games didn't chime into the forum thread discussions, others did explain on Epic's behalf that ultimately the compensation is for players who paid for a Battle Pass but did not have an opportunity to make use of the Pass due to the servers being down after the 2.3.0 roll out. So, if you already managed to complete the Battle Pass and make full use of it, regardless of the server, the rewards aren't necessarily for you.

However, if you attempted to make good on your Battle Pass in Fortnite but the servers were down, then these rewards are specifically designed to compensate you for your time.

Epic's third-person open-world, craft-and-combat game is one of the many titles that has gained quite the popularity due to the rise in the Battle Royale genre. Originally, Fortnite was a survival crafting game, a little bit like Left 4 Dead meets Dungeon Defenders meets Minecraft. However, the campaign mode, known as Save The World, didn't quite take off for the series the way the free-to-play Battle Royale mode did, which gained tens of millions of registered players across home consoles and PC.

Fortnite's success is definitely attributable to the meteoric rise of PUBG Corporation's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The South Korean company's game turned into a multi-million unit selling franchise, eclipsing the company's previous efforts in the form of TERA Online, which was popular for what it was but never reached the heights of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Epic Games saw the writing on the wall, and how the Unreal Engine 4 had been used for the Battle Royale sub-genre and decided to use its own engine to make a similar mode in Fortnite. It turned out to be a huge success and ended up helping it become as big as it is today.

While the server hiccups are definitely a minor obstacle for the developer, the company is working fast to resolve the problem and reward those who were negatively impacted by the last update.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.