Fortnite Update Coming Soon [Update: Out Now]

The next update for Epic's battle royale game Fortnite is coming out soon. Update 5.21 will arrive August 15 at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET--and the good news is that its release won't be accompanied by server downtime as has been the case in the past. [Update: The new patch is out now; here are the patch notes.]

Epic did not say what's new in this update, but the in-game news feed is teasing the arrival of a new Heavy Sniper, so it might finally be released this week.

We'll report back with more details on Fortnite's 5.21 update soon; presumably the full patch notes will be released in conjunction with the update's release.

Last week's 5.20 update introduced a new weapon to Battle Royale: the Double Barrel Shotgun, a powerful type of close-range gun. Fortnite's paid Save the World mode, meanwhile, received new hero: Ragnarok, the Dark Viking.

In other news, now is your last chance to play the Steady Storm limited-time mode. In a cool new twist, this mode features one storm that continuously closes in on the island over the course of the entire match and has no safe zones. As such, you have to keep moving to stay alive, which adds a further layer of urgency.

As in the past, the new update is expected to launch on all platforms at the same time. Fortnite is available for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android