Fortnite is the most popular gaming craze of the year, and millions of players around the world are taking the opportunity to vie for the top spot in an action-packed battle royale arena. Part of the appeal of Fortnite is regular content releases, and while the popular Fortnite guided missile changed the game in a good way, Epic Games has temporarily disabled the weapon due to an animation bug.
The developer first announced the disabling of the Fortnite guided missile during a Tweet on Wednesday morning, just a few hours before the patch that made the change went live.
“Due to an animation issue with the Guided Missile, we’re temporarily disabling it until we have a fix,” Epic wrote. “We’ll update you once it’s resolved!”
Due to an animation issue with the Guided Missile, we’re temporarily disabling it until we have a fix. We’ll update you once it’s resolved!
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 11, 2018
At this point, the Fortnite guided missile still remains unavailable, and it’s unclear as to when exactly it will be reimplemented. The Fortnite patch notes didn’t seem to be changing much about the missile outside of its travel speed, but somehow the updates managed to cause an animation bug that was severe enough to remove it from the game. Fortnite has yet to provide any information as to what exactly went wrong and when we’ll see it added back in.
Polygon reached out to Epic Games and was told that there was no ETA as to when the Fortnite guided missile would be added back in, and that Epic Games needed to address the bug before it was released back into the wild. The removal of such a fun weapon is unfortunate for gamers who were enjoying the unique style of gameplay it offered, but any bugs need to be ironed out – especially in a game with such a low tolerance for mistakes.
While many are eagerly anticipating the reintroduction of the Fortnite guided missile, others are relieved that it’s at least temporarily out of the game due to balance issues and how powerful it can be in the hands of a skilled player. As with any competitive game, any introduction of new content has the potential to mess with balance – and the Fortnite guided missile has definitely changed the game, for better or for worse, even if the bugs are to be ironed out. It will be interesting to see how the refined update to the Fortnite guided missile meshes with the rest of the game after the animation bug fix.
The highlights for the recent Fortnite update are included below:
“We’re excited to introduce a brand new feature for Battle Royale… Replay. With a suite of cinematic settings you can now capture your most memorable moments, highlights and cinematics. We can’t wait to see what you create.”
“Port-a-Fort (Battle Royale)
A portable fort… it’s Port-a-Fort! Fortify yourself in seconds, all with the flick of a wrist.”
“50v50 v2 (Battle Royale)
Two teams will clash in the updated 50v50 Limited Time Mode. Be the first to the frontline.”
“Cyberpunk Heroes (Save the World)
4 new Heroes with some gnarly fashion sense! What’s your style?”
“Neon Weapons (Save the World)
Illuminate the battlefield and send those Husks flying high with one energizing punch!”
The patch notes in their entirety are rather lengthy, but you can find all the fixes by going to the Epic Games website. Overall, it’s a pretty content-rich update that brings new features to both the Battle Royale and Save the World genres. Hopefully, moving forward, we can see the Fortnite guided missile added back in so we can experience more of the fun and mayhem that it added to the popular battle royale arena.
