Fortnite Playground Withdrawn Amid Performance & Matchmaking Chaos

In what is quickly becoming a trend for the dominant battle royale title and is uncannily similar to something out of cult classic Groundhog Day, Fortnite released the brand new creative Playground limited time mode yesterday only to pull it several hours later. This comes following last week’s debacle surrounding the re-re-removal of shopping carts due to a map glitching exploit allowing players to get below the map causing all kinds of chaos.

The mode promising uncapped building galore and squad training was pushed as part of Fortnite

’s weekly 4.5 update, which also included the new dual pistols, map markers, and a few seasonal cosmetic additions. Yet, due to predictable interest in Playground, server loads were through the roof causing significant queue times and error messages to the dismay of curious players eager to test their virtual carpentry skills without fear of being snipped. The mode was unceremoniously removed less than two hours after launch. Fortnite is updated on a weekly basis so issues are to be expected, but surely Epic must have been aware of how popular the mode was going to be. A lack of foresight on its part it seems.

Epic Games later authored a brief post on reddit

saying ‘We know you want to get back out to the Playground LTM. We’ve got multiple teams working to get this mode back into your hands so you can let your imaginations run wild. We want to inform you that the Playground LTM will remain closed for repairs for the night. We’ll have more information available tomorrow’.

To compound matters, players are experiencing matchmaking problems, where it seems only solo matches remain unaffected. Epic later tweeted ‘ Matchmaking has returned to a healthy state and we are continuing work to get the Playgrounds LTM re-enabled’. Though players are still complaining of issues finding games, notably on console.

However, this wasn’t the end to Fortnite’s woes as the game also experienced performance issues due to a memory leak wired into update 4.5. A PC patch was swiftly pushed out and Epic Games seem satisfied the issue has been resolved.

The silver lining, if you can call it that, is shopping carts have been reintroduced. Only time will tell if this is for good or simply the prelude to another reinstate and remove see-saw.