Fortnite Servers in Downtime Ahead of Season 6 Start—How to Check When They Will Be Back Up

The video game phenomenon Fortnite is now down for scheduled maintenance ahead of the launch of its new seasonal content on Tuesday.

Epic Games, the game's developer and publisher, has confirmed on its status page site that the downtime ahead of the new v16.00 update has been in progress since 12 a.m. ET (04:00 UTC). "We will provide updates as necessary," the platform says.

The Fortnite Status Twitter account also confirmed that services within the game were being disabled ahead of the planned maintenance, leaving key features such as voice chat, account logins, matchmaking, leaderboards and the store offline.

The tweet revealed rollout times for the patch will vary depending on the different platforms, however downtime for all of the platforms are expected to end at the same time. "We'll let you all know when downtime has ended," the company assured its millions of players.

While there is no confirmation about the specific end time of the scheduled outage, be sure to check the official status page for updates. The game has some official Twitter accounts that also show updates: @FortniteStatus and @FortniteGame.

In a tweet on Monday, the Fortnite Status account said download file sizes for the patch will be "larger than normal on all platforms" due to its being a new season.

As Newsweek reported on Monday, Zero Point Finale event is scheduled to premiere at 4 a.m. (EDT), giving players a likely window for when service could be restored.

According to GamesRadar, prior maintenance periods have lasted for between two and three hours. Until then, the Epic Games' Fortnite servers won't be accessible.

The popular cartoony "battle royale" title, which sees players placed in combat until one person remains, is currently available for all gaming consoles and computers, including the new next-generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S machines.

Additional platforms include the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite, PC, Mac and the Android operating system.

It is not currently available on the App Store due to an ongoing dispute with Apple over in-app payments. Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Apple last August that alleged its App Store rules were too controlling. Apple removed it from the marketplace.

The App Store charges 30 percent commission for in-app purchases. Epic Games tried to evade that by letting customers buy discounted in-game currency directly from Epic, sparking multiple lawsuits and wider industry debate, as Vox reported at the time.

When it returns on Tuesday, Fortnite's Chapter 2 Season 6 content will drop alongside what was promised to be the "explosive conclusion" of the previous season.

It said in a blog post on March 9: "When you first launch into the new season, you'll play through the conclusion of Agent Jones' mission in the Zero Crisis Finale.

"The aftermath of this event is sure to shape reality as we know it. Don't worry, the Zero Crisis Finale is a solo experience and you can play through it whenever you first log in during the season. Want to watch it online first?

"We'll share details soon on how you can watch the global premiere with everyone, beginning with our most ambitious story cinematic yet! With the fate of reality at stake, here are a few tips before the end of season 5 and we'll see you on the other side.

"Exotic Weapon prices have never been lower! Characters on the Island have recently increased their stock of exotics and are now exchanging them for bars at a huge discount. Grab all you can carry and let chaos reign before your cache of bars is reset at the end of this season to make room for exciting improvements in... season 6."