Fortnite: everything you need to know about the world’s biggest game – The Verge

Fortnite was down all day Friday, but now the ‘Myths & Mortals’ update is here

2024-03-09T11:35:23-05:00

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2: Myths & Mortals | Image: Epic Games

The launch of Fortnite's Greek mythology-themed Chapter 5: Season 2 had been on hold since early Friday morning after the usual downtime for maintenance didn't end on schedule. Epic usually takes the servers down at 3AM ET to prepare for a big update, but only for a few hours. This time, the battle royale game stayed offline until well into Friday evening.

After 9PM ET, players started to report they were able to download updates and get into the game. However, many people said they were still waiting in queues to log in or getting error messages when they tried to play. Eventually, the Epic Games status page tracking downtime related to th …

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Fortnite’s new season brings Greek gods to the battle royale

2024-03-08T03:09:52-05:00

Fortnite is going even more old school for its next season. Epic just launched Chapter 5: Season 2 of the battle royale game, dubbed "Myths & Mortals," and it's all about Greek mythology. That means playing as Greek gods, fighting across Mount Olympus, and wielding Zeus' thunderbolt. The launch was preceded by a clever in-game event involving Pandora's box.

First up, the new locations. A number of mythological locales have been added to the map, including Mount Olympus and the underworld, which, naturally, is guarded by Cerberus. To go along with this are a number of power-ups and items to collect, including the Wings of Icarus so you can f …

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Epic is going to let you report voice conversations in Fortnite

2023-11-16T05:00:00-05:00

Epic Games is adding a new voice reporting feature into Fortnite to help catch players who break the company's community rules.

If the feature is on - if you're under 18, the feature is always on when using voice chats - the device you're playing the game on will securely capture the past five minutes of audio on a "rolling basis," according to Epic's blog post. (Epic stresses that it does not store voice recordings on its servers unless you file a report.) Audio after five minutes is deleted.

When you report a conversation, "the voice chat audio captured from the last five minutes will be uploaded with the report and sent to Epic moderato …

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Fortnite creators will get paid for encouraging players to spend

2023-10-18T12:47:56-04:00

Fortnite maker Epic Games is going to reward creators if players spend V-bucks before or after visiting that creator's custom-made Fortnite experience. The change is happening as part of an update announced Wednesday to the engagement-based formula Epic uses to pay Fortnite creators.

Epic first introduced the engagement-based payouts (which it calls "Creator Economy 2.0") in March. Under the program, Epic pays creators who build experiences for Fortnite from a pool of 40 percent of Fortnite's net revenues each month. Epic itself is also eligible to receive money from that pool. At launch, two of Epic's key engagement metrics for payouts wer …

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Fortnite is pushing creator-made maps with a YouTube-like redesign

2023-10-11T14:38:04-04:00

Happy Halloween! | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This year, Fortnite's big Halloween update included an unwelcome surprise: a redesign that aggressively pushes players toward creator-made experiences and spending money in the in-game store.

The biggest change is on the "Play" tab that serves as the game's lobby. In addition to showing you things like your current game mode and which friends are in your party, you'll now see a partial row of icons on the bottom of the screen, tempting you to scroll toward them to see what they're about. If you do, you'll see a horizontal list of what appears to be previous modes you've played and some suggested ones for you to check out. Keep scrolling dow …

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You can now apply for a refund from Epic Games’ Fortnite FTC settlement

2023-09-19T13:38:49-04:00

You can now apply to receive a refund from Fortnite maker Epic Games' $245 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC alleged that Fortnite players bought in-game goods on accident because of design tricks, and the two parties agreed to the settlement, which was announced as part of a broader $520 million settlement in December.

You can visit www.ftc.gov/Fortnite to apply for the refund and learn more information. The FTC says that you can apply if any of the following is true:

You were charged in-game currency for items you didn't want between January 2017 and September 2022

Your child made charges to your credit …

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Donald Mustard, head of Fortnite’s story, is leaving Epic and retiring

2023-09-08T14:41:37-04:00

Donald Mustard at the 2018 Game Awards. | Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Donald Mustard ran a successful studio that showed what the Xbox and iPhone were capable of. Then, he became the face of one of the biggest and boldest storytelling experiments in history, to borrow a phrase, with Fortnite's massive metaverse.

Now, he's done: Mustard, chief creative officer at Epic Games, says he's retiring this month.

After an incredible adventure, I will be retiring from my role as Chief Creative Officer at Epic this month.

I have enjoyed nearly 25 years in the game industry collaborating with some of the most talented people ever and I am so proud of what we have made together. From the… pic.twitter.com/HWlNEarU4K
- Don …

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Fortnite’s concert series returns with a Rocket League rave

2021-03-22T14:19:20-04:00

Epic Games is reviving its in-game Fortnite concert series with a virtual performance by electronic artist Kaskade over the course of the March 26th weekend. The concert will take place inside Fortnite's Party Royale game mode, and it will also feature tie-ins with Rocket League's upcoming season, as the popular competitive car soccer game is developed by Epic-owned studio Psyonix.

There's a lot of, shall we say, corporate synergy going on here. Psyonix has a longstanding partnership with electronic music label Monstercat to bring leading producers of house, bass, and other genres into Rocket League's in-game soundtrack. And Kaskade just la …

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You are not banned from Fortnite

2020-09-14T16:38:30-04:00

Fortnite experienced game-wide problems with logins earlier on Monday, keeping some players from accessing their accounts. The company instituted downtime while it investigated the issues, but said that things were fixed at 6:09PM ET.

While the issues were going on, some players were seeing messages saying they didn't have permission to play the game. According to the game's official status account, though, "Players who see a message saying 'You do not have permission to play Fortnite' or 'Your account no longer has play access to Fortnite' because of this issue are not banned from Fortnite."

wow rude pic.twitter.com/u7kos7n1xO
- andrew web …

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You can now buy an X-Wing glider in Fortnite

2020-09-14T12:10:11-04:00

You can now buy an X-Wing glider in Fortnite, Epic Games announced Monday. The new glider has become available the same day EA released a new animated short introducing the story of Star Wars: Squadrons. The glider costs 1,200 V-Bucks.

This isn't the first time a Star Wars-themed item has appeared in Fortnite. You could buy a number of cosmetics, including skins for Rey and Finn and a First Order Tie Fighter glider, as part of a major crossover event around the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last year, and you could get the Millennium Falcon as part of the game's last Winterfest event. And EA and Epic have teamed up to help pro …

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