Fortnite Season 8 Downtime Over, New Update Now Live [Update]

The start of Fortnite Season 8 is imminent. The new season of Epic's hit battle royale game kicks off across all platforms today, Thursday, February 28. Downtime has begun, but Epic hasn't specified how long it will last. [Update] Downtime has been completed and Season 8 is live. You can read the full Fortnite update 8.0 patch notes to see what's new.

However, the developer did notes that the patch size "will be larger than normal updates." This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as the start of every season introduces a load of new cosmetics to unlock as well as some other big changes; Season 7, for instance, added a snow biome to the map and the game's first plane vehicle, the Stormwing.

As for what players can expect from Season 8, we know it will have a pirate theme. Epic revealed the theme in a series of teasers in shared leading up to the start of the new season, which referenced treasure and "those who arrive on the waves." The fourth and final teaser shows off a banana man, which could be one of the new skins players can unlock in the new season. When all the teaser images are combined, they form a skull and volcano.

It's unclear how the pirate theme will tie into the gameplay, but it seems some major changes will be made to the island. In the lead up to Season 8, players have begun to experience in-game earthquakes during matches. These have been growing in intensity since, to the point that cracks are now appearing in the island.

How these quakes will affect the map will be clear in a few hours, but until then, you can still complete any remaining Season 7 challenges and unlock all the variants of the Prisoner skin. You can find tips for those in our complete Season 7 challenges guide. You'll want to clear all the Overtime challenges as well, as you can get the Season 8 Battle Pass for free by doing so.