Season 5 timer delay sparks mass confusion

Players were confused by the countdown timer after the Galactus event. Here are the facts

Season 4 took an explosive end after the Galactus villain tried to overthrow the world as we once knew it. Did we send enough battle buses -- or will we be greeted by a new map entirely? We’ll find out in due time

Right after the event ended, players were greeted by a long black “connecting” page followed by a new countdown timer. Players were largely disappointed that downtime would begin so much earlier than expected

Take a look at Lachlan’s POV when he livestreamed the event on YouTube

Skip to 2:11:05 for Mobile users

After the 20 minute event, Fortnite’s new loading screen wrote “Fortnite Season 5 - starts in 7:38:05” with the time ticking backwards down to zero

With the event taking place at 1PM PT / 4PM ET, Fortnite claimed that the new season would begin at 9PM PT / 12PM ET. That would be remarkably earlier than any other season start time

After player reports came in, Fortnite eventually changed the countdown. Unfortunately, this created even more confusion across socials. Chap remarked his concerns on Twitter

im confused did the the timer get 4 hours longer

— Chap (@ChapFN) December 2, 2020

It was eventually clarified that the timer was accidentally set to count down to the start of downtime -- not the end

The original timer was for the start of down time not the end.

It has been adjusted to be the end.

— AussieAntics (@AussieAntics) December 2, 2020

New season updates have notoriously long downtimes, which makes sense why there was a 4 hour discrepancy

We are now back to the scheduled 1AM PT / 4AM ET lift from downtime. Fortnite’s status page confirmed that we have now entered downtime

Chapter 2 - Season 5 (v15.00) is near: server downtime for the update has begun, and you’ll soon be able to download the update on your platform! We’ll post again when server downtime has ended. pic.twitter.com/MojOHDPNa7

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 2, 2020

Hopefully Fortnite’s mistake didn’t confuse you too much. With perhaps the most epic -- and by far the most interactive -- event in all of the game’s history, we can wait just a little longer than previously expected for the new season

What did you think about the Galactus event? Will it go down as the greatest event so far? Let us know on Twitter