Players Are Unhappy at the Slower 'Fortnite' Speed — But Epic Games Wants You to Be Patient

The Gist:

• Fortnite debuted new animations that significantly slowed players' movement speed.
• Players are not happy and have asked Epic Games to change it back.
• Epic maintains that it wants to give players a chance to try it before responding to the negative feedback.

The newest chapter of Fortnite has launched to a rocky start. Though Chapter 5 brings back hurdling and wall climbing, the movement speed across the board seems to have been nerfed, making players run slower than in previous seasons — and they're not happy about this change.

This, coupled with the frequent server crashes, has made this new chapter a rocky one, and players aren't having it. So why did Epic Games change the movement speed in Fortnite?

It seems that the changes to players' movement have been in progress for a long time. A developer at Epic Games tweeted in celebration of the new animations, taking credit for the project.

"Excited to share something that I’ve been working on for the past year!" Colin Friday, the Lead Animations Producer at Epic Games tweeted. "The team knocked our overhaul of Fortnite’s locomotion animations out of the park and I couldn’t be more proud to have been the producer for it!"

Unfortunately, the comments on his post were less than kind, with many suggesting he look for a new job or asking for it to be reverted to the old animations.

The same sentiment is being echoed online by players, who have since posted multiple side by side comparisons detailing just how slow movement is in Fortnite now. Following the outcry online, the official Fortnite Twitter responded to players' concerns.

"TBH, [the movement speed] took us a few days to get used to it during our playtests too," the tweet read. "We want to introduce visual improvements & encourage more strategic decision-making in each moment."

The developer said the update not only improved the animations, but increased stamina recovery, bettered movement when navigating sideways or backwards, and made crouching stealthier.

"We’re listening to your feedback on this and definitely hear the concerns. In this early stage we’re hoping that you’ll consider this update & that it starts to feel natural over time. We’re still here with you and every day we strive to make things better," the tweet concluded.

Many applauded the game's transparency and communication with players, though not everyone is on board with the changes still.

Based on the comment from the official Fortnite Twitter page, there likely won't be any changes made to the animations in any of the immediate patches. Though characters now move slower due to these animations, Epic Games seems to want to wait out this trial period and give users a chance to get used to the new movement speed before making any adjustments to it.

For now, it seems like the best option is to try to keep an open mind when playing and focus on ways to use the other improvements to your advantage in-game.