Meteorites incoming: Fortnite is down overnight for Season 4 update

A meteor is about to fall from the sky and crash into Fortnite: Battle Royale — a moderately successful last-player-standing shooter — and it is going to bring Season 4 with it. Epic Games confirmed today that Season 4 of its Fortnite add-on content begins May 1, and that means Fortnite will have to go offline for a period overnight.

Epic is beginning maintenance on Fortnite’s servers at 4 a.m. Eastern. It did not say how long the update process would take, but if you are having troubles getting connected in the morning, that is probably why.

https://twitter.com/FortniteGame/status/991013165885509633

The beginning of Season 4 should also mark the end of the meteor saga for Fortnite. Last month, a comet-like object began appearing in the skies over the map. Players quickly started to speculate that Epic was planning to demolish the central town of Tilted Towers using an asteroid collision. That may not come to pass, but it seems inevitable now that a meteorite is going to change the game in some way.

Last week, tiny meteorites began smashing into the map and causing explosions during matches. At the same time, Epic began teasing Season 4 with artwork that suggested aliens or superheroes. Now, that teasing has reached its zenith.

Brace for impact!

Witness Season 4 tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/LVG3mO6vmK

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 30, 2018

In the latest promotional image for Season 4, Epic has a crew standing on craggy rock. It’s difficult to see if they are wearing anything new, but the image is definitely suggesting that the meteorite impact could introduce a lot of new items into the game.

As for the fate of Tilted Towers, we still don’t know. Garlic Jim, my local purveyor of pizza pies, is already mourning its loss. But we’ll just have to see where the big space rock lands.

Me: Let's get away from games for a bit. Let's get out of the house. Walk to Starbucks or something.
Also me: God dammit. pic.twitter.com/oumX8C0bxG

— Jeffrey Grubb (@JeffGrubb) April 27, 2018

As you have probably guessed, the imminent release of Season 4 means that today, April 30, is the last day of Season 3. So if you were only a few objectives away from finishing a challenge or two, you still have time. But you better get into the battle royale before those servers go offline.