Fortnite: Chapter 2 has brought with it a sea of change for the battle royale experience, so much so that it may as well be considered a sequel, which is a bit weird considering it’s still in beta after all these years. Regardless, it’s not the same Fortnite you once knew, which extends to the way Epic relay information about new patches — or, rather, how they don’t.
Patch notes are often sent out by developers alongside the launch of a new patch for a game to help players understand what’s changed. In Fortnite’s case, patch notes typically covered new weapons, vaultings, tweaks, and much, much more. These things used to be like reading a small book, they were that in-depth.
Since the start of Season 1 of Chapter 2, there hasn’t been a single list of patch notes for any of the updates, breaking a ten season long tradition. For the launch of Chapter 2, there were no specific details on weapons additions or removals, changes to buildings, balance tweaks, or any of the normal updates that Epic were known for.
They wanted a fresh start, evidenced most perfectly by the typical patch notes for the new season being replaced with a simple message instead:
“Added: Chapter 2. Take your #FirstDrop and discover everything new.”
There was another update that went along with this succinct summary on the official site, but it just detailed some of the new mechanics without a great amount of detail.
Since then, there hasn’t been anything resembling patch notes, the closest being some of the new cosmetics and gameplay additions for Fortnitemares 2019.
On November 5th, Epic released a phantom patch that was unannounced but added the new Harpoon item to the game along with a few other tweaks. Bizarrely, they haven’t acknowledged it on either their website or social platforms.
Even more bizarrely, Epic have archived all the patch notes from previous seasons of Fortnite, perhaps to stop younger players getting their wires crossed.
This lack of information has led the Fortnite community to create their own unofficial patch notes to detail the things that Epic won’t, but that’s how misinformation spreads. Partly guesswork, these patch notes may misrepresent things like damage figures and rarities, further adding to the confusion.
The non-existence of patch notes hasn’t gone down too well with the Fortnite community, who are bemused more than anything.
Hey @FortniteGame,
your good buddy myth here just wanted to swing in and ask if yall could like let us know when patches arent gonna happen, oooo and if we could get patch notes back that would be LIT.
love,
TMS Mythilogical— Myth (@TSM_Myth) November 5, 2019
CONCEPT: Updates Patch Notes!
what do you think @FortniteGame..? you should add it!
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) October 29, 2019
The harpoon thing is enabled
Would've known sooner but in classic chapter 2 epic games fashion "lmao fuck patch notes"
— Lucas7yoshi – Fortnite Leaks (@Lucas7yoshi) November 5, 2019
So, why have Epic made such a drastic change? We think it’s two things.
The first: to stop so much negativity. Fortnite historically has quite a demanding fanbase who want a lot changed all the time, and then change their minds about the change. The fanbase is so large that any possibly polarising tweak to the game is a beacon for criticism, and a lot of it quite ugly at that.
The second: to add some mystery to each new update. It’s a bit of a wacky move, but judging by how successful the black hole event was for them, maybe going down the unexpected, mysterious route will work out better for them in the long run.
The only real concern is how this lack of patch notes will potentially breed misinformation. Fortnite’s audience is young, so they could easily be misled by unofficial figures.
That said, while Fortnite’s disappearing patch notes are an odd situation, they’re not a deal-breaker. Sure, it would be nice to jump into a patch and have some idea of what to expect, but it does also create a nice surprise. When a game is out for two years, sometimes it’s worth experimenting with the unusual.
A really nice surprise, though, would be if they finally added Bao Bros to the Item Shop.
We reached out to Epic Games for comment on this story 48 hours before publishing but didn’t hear back.
UPDATE: We will be updating this with each path to detail if Epic drop any notes or not.
Fortnite v11.11: No patch notes.
Fortnite: Battle Royale is free-to-play on PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
MORE FORTNITE:
– How Many People Play Fortnite?
– My (Too) Long Quest For 100 Fortnite Wins
– The Best Fortnite Skins To Add To Your Locker
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