Strap in, gamers, because the launch of Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2 has been an absolute plopshow – in the most epically Fortnite way possible. If you fired up your system today expecting to drop into the new Odyssey season and its promised Greek mythology theme, you were met with a harsh reality. Yup, it’s not just you, Fornite is totally down. Epic’s servers remained offline hours after the planned 4am ET launch, without a Minotaur or Spartan warrior in sight. In a statement posted to Twitter, “We’re still working through some updates during downtime and will provide more information once our v29.00 downtime has ended.” Oookay then. At least they’re…working on it? Downdetector says it sure doesn’t look like they’re working hard. But hey, cut them some slack, it’s Friday. Cmon. Image: KnowTechie The plot thickened as PC Gamer reported Epic’s status updates promising an 8-hour extended downtime, which would push the new season’s availability to 2 pm ET at the earliest. For those keeping score, that’s twice as long as the mega-update last season that introduced Lego pieces to the island. But why such a severe delay this time around? ‼️ DOWNTIME UPDATE: "We're still working through some updates during downtime and will provide more information once our v29.00 downtime has ended." pic.twitter.com/B5JqVbjQsy— HYPEX (@HYPEX) March 8, 2024 Rumors are swirling about everything from server meltdowns to Mr. Meowscles getting trapped in Epic’s air vents. Reps couldn’t be reached at press time for comment. At this point, you…Epic Games’ servers offline for Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 2 launch