'Fortnite' Developers Remove Close Encounters and Fans Are Angry

There was plenty of excitement when Epic Games revealed that Jetpacks were coming to Fortnite, but unfortunately, thanks to certain players ruining the fun, the limited time mode featuring the Jetpacks has been removed, which made fans quite upset.

A representative of Epic went on the Fortnite subreddit Saturday to announce that the Close Encounters limited time mode will be removed from the game. The new mode strapped Jetpacks to players and let them fly across the map while shotgunning each other. Taking its place is an updated Solid Gold mode that increases the drop rates of Legendary weapons during a match.

“We heard your feedback about Close Encounters and will be evaluating the effect sky bases have on this LTM,” posted the representative. “To replace this we’ve brought back Solid Gold after seeing how much you enjoyed it.”

Sky bases is a tactic when players are able to build structures in the air and stay out of reach of opponents on the ground. Thanks to the new Jetpacks, making sky bases became much easier causing some negative feedback. However, on the announcement thread, many players were livid over the removal. Some cited how the sky bases weren’t an issue and that they enjoyed. Other were upset the mode was removed before they could even play it.

There is no update on when or if the Close Encounters limited time mode will return. Jetpacks are still available in regular Fortnite: Battle Royale matches as rare drops found on the map, which is a good thing since using the pack is one of the Week 5 Challenges.

The new Jetpack is the first of a new set of items for Fortnite: Battle Royale known as Backpacks. The news items take up inventory space and offer some sort of advantage when acquired. One backpack that was mistakenly added in the v4.2 update was the Eye of the Storm Tracker pack that guided players to where the eye of the storm would be.