Many Fortnite players aren't happy with Epic's recent changes to matchmaking. The studio has responded to the complaints in a blog post, defending the new system as a positive step forward for the game.
"So far, we've rolled out the new matchmaking system to select regions for Solo mode, and Duos is expected to arrive later this week," the blog post begins. "With the rollout, we’ve seen a lot of discussion about potentially unfair competitive advantages from pooling players together across platforms and input devices." However, Epic does argue that the matchmaking system is meant to help foster more equal competition among Fortnite players."
The post adds that the aim of the update was to create fairer matches for all players, "which includes special considerations for each platform." In other words, players might be matched with players from other platforms due to skill level.
Epic Games also discusses "smurfing" in their response, mentioning that some players have been smurfing in order to enter less challenging matches. Epic indicates that players can be banned if they are found to be doing this.
Epic Games is closely keeping track of the updates, as it states that it is incorporating feedback by continually modifying the game so as to make it fairer for everyone.
It seems that the idea of a fair match may be a focus of Epic's right now. There are plenty of very skilled players who play Fortnite at this point, so letting the players hone their skills through the new matchmaking system is theoretically a great idea. However, the new matchmaking element could potentially prevent new players from improving at Fortnite and reaching the same skill level as longtime Fortnite players.
Alongside the matchmaking update, there had been added an update to the "Bots" functionality. Thursday's blog post from Epic adds that there are no major planned updates to Bots, but Epic does want to see "how far we can push our Bots" and is considering a mode that involves fighting entirely against Bots.
The same blog post had made mention of Season X's extension in Fortnite. As such, players have until October 13th to unlock all of the rewards associated with Season X. This extension brings with it the Out of Time event and means that the Batman-related added content will be around until October 13th.
Fortnite is currently available to download on all major consoles, PC, and mobile devices.