Fortnite's Playground LTM makes sudden return after technical difficulties
It's break time.
Epic has see-sawed once again to re-release Fortnite's Playground LTM (limited time mode) after the initial update encountered matchmaking issues.
The LTM, which allows players to build and practise their skills in a relaxed environment, was originally released in last week's patch; but was pulled mere hours after release when players encountered long queue times and error messages.
According to Epic's official post on Reddit, players may still encounter some of these issues due to high player numbers. The developer has advised players to set their regions to 'auto-select' and re-queue if they encounter problems joining.
To help cope with demand, Epic have also placed a time limit on matches, meaning that players can only remain in one Playground game for 60 minutes. You have to credit Epic for authenticity: it's just like a school lunch break.
In the same Reddit post, Epic moved to reassure fans it would investigate the technical issues, announcing it intends to conduct "an in-depth and detailed postmortem in the near future" to discover what went wrong in the original update.
For now, it seems players are finally able to dive into the sandbox mode with relatively few problems. Yet the episode has once again raised questions about Epic's ability to produce working updates on the first try: an issue over which fans will undoubtedly watch the developer closely in the future.