"Fortnite: Battle Royale" creators launched the game's first non-competitive mode this week, only to have the influx of players crash the entire game for several hours, forcing them to take the new mode offline indefinitely.
When Epic Games first announced they would be introducing "Playground Mode" early this week, fans and streamers went wild. Essentially serving as the game's practice arena, "Playground" would be a limited-time sandbox-style mode that allows players to take a break from the fast-paced battle-royale formula by roaming through the island with up to three of their friends, without any opponents to shoot at or hide from.
The mode was initially launched Wednesday morning with the game's regular weekly update, but was taken offline by developers at Epic Games shortly afterwards, along with all other Fortnite modes, when the influx of players caused a crash in the game's matchmaking software. While the usual servers were back up and running within a few hours, Playground mode has yet to be restored.
Representatives from the company described the unexpected mishap on Twitter and Reddit Thursday, saying, "So many of you rushed in to create and play that our matchmaking service fell over. We've since separated the Playground matchmaker from the one that affects the default modes and made large improvements to assist with the number of players."
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Since taking the mode offline, Epic Games has been giving regular updates on their official Twitter account, a reddit thread, and their website, but have offered no prediction for when the mode will be brought back online.
On Friday, Epic posted a tweet saying the mode was still being tested, and that they would be releasing it "as soon as possible."
A handful of streamers and YouTubers were able to record their Playground sessions before the mode was taken offline, so at least we can all watch other people have fun while we wait.
Here's the official trailer for Playground Mode: