The employees of Epic Games returned to the office after the winter break that was given to the whole company, which means that new Fortnite updates and fresh content are going to come along with it. The renowned Fortnite news source ShiinaBR made this announcement, which caused a swift discussion among the gaming community. This returning to the office is a routine occurrence every year that usually comes along with a small update, fixing of bugs, and a major event.
So Epic has returned to the office again, nothing surprising. The game developers are probably finished with their favorite winter drink and have taken off their Christmas sweaters but this doesn’t imply that they were not working on Fortnite at all; to the contrary, the engine is back to full power. ShiinaBR, who is more or less the town crier of Fortnite related news, tweeted this and there was an instant chaos in the comments as usual. Its the vibes of a whole community.
The gamers reacted immediately. The comment section was transformed into a public demand forum in no time, a list of wants shouted into the void and the most prominent and loudest complaint was skill-based matchmaking or SBMM. KryptoniteTw and __Mourning were among the several players who directly asked or even begged Epic to reverse the SBMM changes. “I wish they would fix the SBMM that they broke,” one player lamented. It is clear that this is a big problem, the first and foremost concern of the players as soon as they got the news about the developers being back in their offices. That should tell something about the current matchmaking situation, wouldn’t it?
However, wait a minute, it is going deeper. The requests are very wide and sometimes even funny. One player named Kiraitoshi is asking the game developers to “release the grappling hook,” while another itzsquidzzz has an issue of very specific nature regarding the “Carti hat styles” which are not appearing correctly and even posted a picture to back their claim. FEAROFCROWBAR is lamenting, begging for a bug fix on the “buggy ui.” Then there is jiraikaitoz who simply wants the Courage the Cowardly Dog skin to be back in the item shop, a wish that immediately got rejected by other comments saying “Hell no” and “bro trolling early in the morning.” The priorities are… bewildering.
Also, the questions about the season which are usually brought up at this time of the year, are among the comments. MichaelTheberg1 is asking if there is a hidden skin this season, which indeed a sensible question. And undoubtedly, the collab makers are still very active and even more so than before. MGJackRipper is requesting “Metal Gear wave 2” as a kind of recompense for a “mid winterfest,” while Racager_ is hoping for the J. Cole and Hitman collabs that are apparently in the files. NoToKYC comically commented that it is “Time to grind or time to FOMO, fam,” which hints that FOMO is legit.
Some of the replies are nothing but hilarious comments about the whole scenario. web3_theo joked, “Epic’s back from vacation just in time to break the game again classic,” which is a vibe and probably comes from past incidents. And jiberating dubbed it a “huge day for the unemployed,” which the jiberating conveys as uh-nothing but a feeling.
Nevertheless, jokes and specific requests apart, there is a strong expectation from the players’ side. The comments “Locked in for this” and “time to LOCK TF IN back” show that players are excited and have their fingers on the trigger, ready for the next one. CreativeDude put it this way “Epic games is ready to make Fortnite great again,” closely associating the term with a “hope for change,” though it is a loaded word. Meanwhile, a simple “Looking forward to the new year” by RealIggyLibre summarizes what has been said above.
As for the return of the development team to work, it is just one of those routine calendar events but for Fortnite players, it has the same significance as a signal flare. It means that the silence has been broken and that the game’s continuous development will be very active again. Whether it is about fixing the frustrating bugs, the players complaining about matchmaking issues, or even the next game’s crossover launch, the players’ attention is already on Epic’s next move. The players’ message is loud and clear: they are involved, they have something to say, and they also want to see what the very first patch of the year brings in terms of changes on the island in this popular battle royale.
