Fortnite Chapter 5, season 2 delayed as Epic works on new patch

Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite’s Chapter Five, season two patch has been delayed by “at least eight additional hours” after the developers “encountered an unexpected issue” in the v29.00 update.

Downtime started at 2am CT on Friday, March 8, with Fortnite‘s servers being taken offline to allow the new patch to launch. During that time, Epic dropped the Chapter Five, season two patch notes, giving us a look at what to expect when we finally get into the game.

Many expected downtime to end at 7am CT as usual, but as the clock ticked over, players found themselves still locked out of the game. Some reported seeing Matchmaking Error #3 if they managed to get into the lobby, while others sat in the queue only to find that the servers were not responding.

After some confusion, Epic Games finally responded to the delay, confirming that while it was “excited” for players to get into the game, we would all have to wait a little longer.

“We’re still working through some updates during downtime and will provide more information once our v29.00 downtime has ended,” Epic wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Because of this, downtime will be a few hours longer than usual.”

Unfortunately, a “few hours” has now turned into “at least eight hours,” with Epic Games confirming that a problem was causing the delay.

Epic wrote: “We encountered an unexpected issue during our maintenance and we need to extend downtime at least eight additional hours. We apologize for making everyone wait longer than usual to drop into Chapter Five, season two of Battle Royale. The team is working through this as quickly as possible, and we’ll provide another update when we have more info.”

With that new information, we don’t expect Fortnite Chapter Five, season two will start until at least 4:30 pm CT, although that depends on the team solving the issue before then. I just hope they can fix it, as I know I want to get in, see the new map, and try to get my first Victory Royale of the season as soon as possible, and I’m sure you do too.

Article updated at 8:33 am CT to reflect new information on the eight hour delay.