For weeks, Fortnite has been teasing the event that would bring an end to its controversial Season 10. Aptly titled "The End," a countdown timer for the impending incident popped up above the rocket in Dusty Depot, revealing that whatever was going to happen would occur on Sunday, Oct. 13. Well, the event came to pass, and it's caused a stir in the Fortnite community, to say the least.
At 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, players began to queue into the newly added "The End" game mode, a version of Team Rumble that permitted users to witness the event in a full lobby. Once in the game, everyone made their way to the rocket to watch the timer count down to zero. Once it did, the map's storm dissipated, and the rocket took off into the air, leading to a multi-minute scene that concluded with players transporting outside of Battle Royale.
What came next has sent Fortnite players, novice and pro alike, into a frenzy. As soon as everyone loaded into the next screen after witnessing the event, they were left gazing at what can only be described as a black hole. Most assumed that, after waiting for a few minutes, they would be able to witness the next season of the world's most popular game. However, that wasn't the case, as the game has been offline for more than a day now. As one might imagine, that has triggered an array of reactions from the community.
Many have poked fun at Fortnite's downtime, knowing that Epic Games will reveal the next outing soon. "It’s been 20 hours without Fortnite," said popular Twitch streamer Jack "CouRage" Dunlop. "I’ve learned 4 different languages, solved the gravity relativity theory, discovered the cure for multiple diseases, lost 8 more pounds, and went outside and got a tan. Please bring back Fortnite. I’m losing my true self."
On the flip side, some people have taken the game's shutdown as a slap in the face. "This seems like a terrible marketing strategy to piss everyone off... well see tomorrow i guess," wrote professional Fortnite player LiquidChap.
Whether or not it was the right move, the whole community will have to admit Epic is taking a gamble by shutting down its game for a period. The likely reasoning behind such a massive decision is that the developer is planning to roll out important changes -- ones that will hopefully make up for its disastrous Season 10.
Fortnite is available across multiple gaming platforms, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows, Nintendo Switch, macOS, iOS, and Android devices.