Fortnite is pushing back its next season launch to June with another extension
Epic is extending the current season of Fortnite by another month, with the third season of Chapter 2 now slated to launch on June 4th instead of May 1st. Epic made the announcement on its website Tuesday morning, offering very little explanation.
“We’re extending Chapter 2 – Season 2 of Fortnite beyond the original April 30 date. Our plan is to launch Chapter 2 – Season 3 on June 4,” the announcement reads. “Before then, there’s lots of content coming in the current Season. We have multiple game updates on the way that will deliver fresh gameplay, new Challenges, bonus XP, and a couple more surprises up our sleeve.”
This is the second extension for the game’s seasonal model since Epic gave Fortnite a kind of soft reboot last fall with the launch of Chapter 2 following the black hole event. It’s not clear why Epic is doing this, but there are a number of potential reasons, the most obvious being the current COVID-19 pandemic impacting societies worldwide. Epic, based in North Carolina, is having its workforce maintain the game from home, and that might be having an effect on how closely Epic is able to keep to its planned schedule.
There’s also the matter of competitive Fortnite, which has effectively disappeared following last summer’s successful World Cup event while Epic irons out some issues. In early March, Epic said it would pause all cash prize tournaments to address performance problems, and on top of that it’s likely COVID-19 has since put a pause on any plans to host tournaments or live competitions of any kind well into the future.
So there’s quite a bit going on both with the game and with the world beyond at the moment, and it makes sense Epic might want a little extra time to iron out its next seasonal launch and perhaps plot a clearer path forward for the game’s esports scene. For players, it means an extra 30 days or so to finish the battle pass.
Epic is extending the current season of Fortnite by another month, with the third season of Chapter 2 now slated to launch on June 4th instead of May 1st. Epic made the announcement on its website Tuesday morning, offering very little explanation. “We’re extending Chapter 2 – Season 2 of…
