Fortnite's arrival on Switch this June was met with surprise, intrigue, and an awful lot of excitement from fans who wanted to take the game on the go. For those who have been sucked into its highly addictive ways, having the game available on Switch added a great new way to play - as well as offering players without other consoles a way to finally see what all the fuss is about - but the portable experience appears to be getting worse as time progresses, leaving the game near "unplayable" and upsetting players in the process.
In July, the game updated for its fifth season across all platforms, immediately becoming the victim of a whole host of performance issues on Switch. At the time, the huge influx of new players was assumed to be the culprit, with servers struggling to keep up with player demands, but as Fortnite continues to receive weekly patches - which should help to alleviate these early issues, if anything - the problems are actually getting worse.
The most common issues seem to be a seriously high level of lag, with some pretty severe frame drops to boot, and a frustrating problem where textures fail to load for a good while after you've landed on the map, making your player bounce on the spot for a while before inevitably being taken out. Players have been sharing their annoyances online and, if you play the game regularly yourself, some of these videos will no doubt feel very familiar.
https://twitter.com/jzcadotte/status/1030710687209742337
Understandably, one fan - under the name DoctorSqueeze - started a discussion on Reddit to address the matter, acting as a "crying plea" to developer Epic Games to resolve these issues. With mentions of issues with emotes, voice chat, lag, and the "unacceptable" texture loading problems, hundreds of other users have jumped on board to agree with the problems listed, telling their own tales of performance issues and how it has been affecting their experience.
Naturally, these problems are a huge shame and the one unforgivable downside to a game that has plenty of potential on Switch; it's no exaggeration to say that Fortnite has taken the world by storm - and for good reason, as it can be a highly enjoyable experience - but something needs to change on Switch before the situation gets any worse. If you're listening, Epic Games, we hope you can give your dedicated players the game that Fortnite can be and answer their pleas. They're counting on you.
Have you had performance issues with Fortnite on Switch? Have you noticed areas where the game needs to improve? Share your findings with us in the comments below.
Comments 95
Maybe Epic just can't handle the pressure of running the "world's favourite game!"
I have a SERIOUS issue about this game. I wish NintendoLife to make a article about this problem. I’m playing Fortnite on my switch in South Korea. Starting from few weeks ago, I had a serious problem in friend multiplayer. When my Friends press ready, it doesn’t appear ready on my switch. It keep says the other player has to be ready... and to make things worse, If my friends take me out of the party, I’m stuck at old friend’s party that doesn’t even exist anymore. And there are severe more issues like not able to get my friend’s party request. I cant play fortnite with my friends anymore with my Switch. Come On, EPIC!!!!
I have a SERIOUS issue about this game. I wish NintendoLife to make a article about this problem. I’m playing Fortnite on my switch in South Korea. Starting from few weeks ago, I had a serious problem in friend multiplayer. When my Friends press ready, it doesn’t appear ready on my switch. It keep says the other player has to be ready... and to make things worse, If my friends take me out of the party, I’m stuck at old friend’s party that doesn’t even exist anymore. And there are severe more issues like not able to get my friend’s party request. I cant play fortnite with my friends anymore with my Switch. Come On, EPIC!!!!
Epic Games, are they the same guys who made the original Gears of war ?
I gave this game a go not long after release and was really surprised to seriously enjoy it. As a result I bought the battlepass. Over the last week or so the lag has been insane, and just in the last few days the image/texture loading has been nothing short of awful, yesterday buildings just didn’t right themselves at all and I ‘fell through’ a broken one....
It’s a real disappointment considering they proved that it would run, and run well on switch so this just feels sloppy to me! I hope they fix it because I am keen to work my way through the challenges.
Can't fix being a dull game
I honestly have never had any of the problems shown in those videos, and I've played the game for close to 100 hours since they released it on Switch.
I gave the game a good go when it first came out, put in over 100 hours on it, then just came to the conclusion that it's just not very good and haven't played it since. I have way too many great game to play to waste any more time on something so mediocre.
Yeah all of this plus the lowered resolution in the latest patch is awful. I can’t believe people who are honestly trying to say they never encountered anything listed here (especially the resolution and framerate issues) as the difference in resolution between this patch and the last patch are night and day
Ive played 180 hours since the Switch release and 100 before it since I started around when it launched. This is the worst state it’s ever been in
@Hobbesyall Yeah, and they are also the developers behind Unreal Engine. If someone knows how to use it, they should.
@aiden0309 I had that issue before. A temporary fix I found was to change your Switch name. If all of your friends change their names, it should work again.
Not had any major issues, bit twitchy on a rare occasion.
I've played this game a lot on the switch and recently it's become unbearable to play it. textures not loading is by far the worst, it directly impacts the game, maybe even more worse than the horrible lag
Wheres tge damn carear tab!!!!
I played a few hours when it released and lost interest, but never had much issue. But to be fair I haven't played it recently. Doesn't this game run on bloody iPads? There is no reason for it to have issues on the Switch when it can run on tablets full of bloatware and other applications draining the power.
A free to play game that’s full of bugs and supported in a model to just make money...
Never.
Anyone who thought this port would be a good experience is kidding themselves.
Was disappointed to see Nintendo embrace the F2P model.
It’s the enemy of the gaming industry and will result in deeper more fulfilling games not being made.
@NinjaAceTrainer THX Ishould try it back in my home
@BenAV 100 hours seems like a lot to play to realise it’s not very good. I can probably count on my fingers the number of games I’ve put that much time and effort into...
@KoopaTheGamer than to hell with fortinite port GOW instead xD
@Stocksy I think that there's plenty of room in the market for F2P experiences. If mobile and F2P were truly the death of deep gaming experiences, most of Nintendo and Sony's first party lineups would be struggling.
I don't think the expectation of a good experience in Fortnite is unreasonable either. Fortnite's issues on Switch are frustrating because they largely weren't there when the game launched. They've already shown they can provide a good experience on the system, then they broke it with future updates.
It's off putting. I don't like how the low poly buildings ruin the game. It's a lot of fun, but needs to be dealt with soon.
I don't play Fortnite so this doesn't affect me at all. Still, sucks for all the fans out there. At any given moment, around half of everyone online on my friends list is playing Fortnite.
I've experienced lag, but only do to my ping being in the thousands do to my awful internet, and textures not loading once, but that has since been fixed in the latest patch, people are making it seem like it's unplayable, which is totally untrue
This is weird because I haven't noticed any glitch at all?
@gaga64 I was trying to get used to the basics while playing with friends with the hopes that motion controls would make the game more enjoyable. But they were horribly implemented.
I spend a lot of time playing the Switch. Have almost 200 games including physical and digital and have several that I've played for 100 hours or more. Splatoon 2 the highest at 855 hours and Isaac second at 755 hours. I just love this system, haha.
My sons play hours almost daily and haven't complained at all. I jump on a few matches here and there and have found some Fram rate dips here and there, but would hardly call it unplayable, seems a bit dramatic
I've heard some very mixed reviews for this game on the Switch. Seems some people have no issues while others have loads.
I've tried really, REALLY hard to like this game and put in a dozen of hours, but I find it repetitive, unoriginal, boring and bland. I cannot for the life of me understand what's so addictive about it and what it does that isn't done a hundred times better in another game. If his was a full priced title it would've failed miserably.
In those hours I played it, however, I never encountered any issues. Maybe this here is a vocal minority that did.
@Razer
Wow shocking news.
It's a free game, what did you expect? If you pay for some costume then maybe the performance will improve.
The other half and I never really had any major problems throughout (occaisonal glitchy match but otherwise fine) but this latest update jeez!
They lowered resolution and adjusted things to make load times easier but all it's done is make it near unplayable.
Idc if the buildings look like butt, just give us a generally good experience. The rubber banding and ground jumping is madenning seeing as it was all hunky dory before
@BigKing its reviews little man.
"Shocking reviews".
Just because a game is a glitchy mess doesn’t make it unplayable. These guys need to calm down a little bit.
Eh people wanted the game so they shouldn't shouldn't be whining about the fact that they're working to make it playable on the console.
Also lag could be caused by personal network issues and not Epic. That would explain why some seem to have it and some don't.
On the bright side when the textures fail to load, you get to see what the game would look like on the N64!
I did notice that after the most recent update the graphics seem to be worse
I've played over 300 hours on the Switch, almost exclusively handheld.
The game is still completely playable.
For some reason, the latest update has lowered the resolution. It's needlessly fuzzy... I hope they sort it out, but it's not unplayable by any means.
What Switch owners should be moaning about is the lack of a career tab. I have like 200 solo wins, and I'd really like to not have to tally my own wins.
@saintayu it launched in a good state and only went completely south when season 5 launched. People are allowed to ‘whine’ when the updates are actively making the game worse.
Well the performance could be better, more stable, and yes it's slowly getting worse, it was definitely smoother before.
But the biggest problem for me isn't performance, it's the broken gyro controls, which also was working decently enough before season 5, now it's broken. The funny thing is that it's only broken with the Pro controller, NOT when using joycon grip. It's been well over a month(or is it 2?) and they STILL haven't figured out a fix for this, or even mentioned that they're aware of the issue.
Here's the forum thread about it;
https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/forums/bug-reports/battle-royale-aa/547981-gyro-broken-after-5-10-update
@Peterjr1 season 5 adds new content. Games change with expansion. It's not unusual for that to cause a need for better hardware or to just cause issues.
That's part of playing a game with content updates on any console. If you don't like it then don't play the game.
Funnily enough, I have been having these SAME issues on Xbox One in Fortnite, and it began at about the same time as everyone else.
Ive only had the problem of not being able to join friends.
Yeah, seems like most complaints are centred around the current state of the Switch and Xbox One versions of the game - I've never played the game on Xbox One myself, but the Switch version keeps getting worse with each patch...there's long been a problem of textures failing to load properly (especially in 'popular' places like Tilted Towers) - but the lag/frame drops that have started to creep in are beyond painful - and even 'QoL improvements', like motion controls, have been damaged beyond reasonable use.
For the time being, they should focus less on map changes/item additions etc and more on bringing the game up to a playable standard on all platforms...otherwise the bubble may burst.
I tried installing this game on my PC, and the installer crashes. Can't get it to work.
Was really hoping to show my two console kiddies the power of the KB & M...epic fail. Pun required.
The only issue we've had thus far is an occasional stutter in frames. It hasn't cost us any wins or loses but we also aren't very good at it.
Hopefully they fix the issues players are having soon to make it a better experience
I rather Epic get us Jazz Jackrabbit on Switch.
@HorridCrow I play few times a week and I got the frozen bug, for me and another player. Hope they fix all this, I remember seeing an announcement for downtime last week.
It seems to be worse in docked mode. I used to have an occasional match where the buildings wouldn’t render immediately, but now it seems to happen every single time I land. And there’s a huge momentary freeze when you pick up your first weapon, too. The glitches do seem to be getting worse.
@BenAV wow, I think I’ve got clocked maybe 25 hours of Spla2n... Most played on Switch is Lego Marvel 2, 100%d at about 60 hours, closely followed by Mario Odyssey. Most time I’ve ever definitively spent on a game was about 150 hours on Breath of the Wild WU or Smash Bros 3DS (though I probably clocked similar times with previous Smash games, Tetris and certain Mario/Zelda games on the SNES, N64 or OG Game Boy).
The Android experience for Galaxy phones is pretty garbage too. I get the impression there was a charter to get this game on as many platforms as possible, but corners were obviously cut to achieve this.
Am I the only one who thinks this game sucks? I'd much rather play any other shooter.
@gaga64 My most ever played game to my knowledge is Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate at over 1200 hours. Over 1000 in Pokemon X and Pokemon AS (due to breeding for competitive teams and stuff). On the Switch I've also got 100+ hours in Has-Been Heroes, Resident Evil Revelations, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Rocket League.
@marnelljm It's sucessfull because it is free, plain and simple.
Anyway, I see no reason to play this on switch over the pc, you don't even need a gaming pc.
@redd214 I experienced all these issues from the video last night when playing in docked mode. In portable mode, it actually seems more stable.
My sons love it! It works for them and they play a lot. I've only witnessed one game when some serious lag forced my youngest son a game. Usually they're both playing using our home wifi and still no issues. We also have a PS4. It hasn't been touched but for a few times since Fortnite released on the Switch.
@wolfhammerr sorry to hear that but like I said we have not. Hopefully it's gets fixed for you guys soon!
It is not "unplayable".
This generation never played a bad 8-bit arcade port as it doesn't know the meaning of the word.
I’ve had textures load slower since the last update, but nothing like the issues in those videos. Maybe I’m lucky? I feel like when I die it’s my fault and not lag. I’m playing from Japan so perhaps location has something to do with it.
I uninstalled from my Switch ages ago. Just keep it on PC, where the resolution is not a random mess and I can actually see.
When the game first came out there was way less problems. Now it's a mess.
I was playing it the other day, maybe two days ago, and never had experiences like this in the 8-10 games I played.... I mean if me dying really fast because I suck counts?... Then yea there's a bunch of glitchs!
But idk, I guess I'm just lucky?
The o'l revers-aroo, launch a game running fine, with updates make it worse....ECH!
I am so glad that i didn't "get" this game when I tried it. It was too slow and boring
@Hobbesyall Yeah Epic goes way back. Jazz Jack Rabbit in the DOS days. Unreal, Unreal Tournament (one of the very first big online arena games, direct competitor to Quake 3), Infinity Blade on mobile, and of course the creators of the Unreal engine itself. How they could be getting it wrong I have no idea.
Though I guess it finally proves the debate, 25 years later:
idTech >> Unreal Engine.
Actually it was looking better last night than a week ago. It was really bad- buildings were purple squares for me and my dude kept glitching into other areas. I’m still experiencing texture issues with backgrounds and other people but compared to square purple buildings that won’t release you...
Nintendo needs to farm out some of its 3ds UI team ASAP to apply some stability.
@BenAV impressive dedication. I wish I had that time to spend, or enthusiasm to stick with any single game for that long.
Yup. All of this is true. I’ve just accepted at this point that I am never going to land anywhere that’s high traffic. I’ll never survive it if I do simply due to textures and terrain not loading properly.
@aiden0309 I've had this problem since the last update which I finally fixed yesterday. Remove any special characters on your username on Your profile on Switch's. (not your epic games account but your actual switch profile).
@MasterJay
I agree. I did have some really bad lag and texture loading lag for like a day but it's cleared up. The only issue I did have was being unable to play with friends until I read that changing my switch username would fix that.
Glad I'm not the only one with these issues
Paladin's is the better game but I copuldnt even log onto that yesterday.
I've been experiencing clipped frame rates lately, which makes the game virtually unplayable at times. It's incredibly annoying when I'm trying to shoot someone and the frame rate drops!
@Moon On 5.30 Fortnite is pretty good handheld, all the issues (but resolution) are when docked.
@HorridCrow
Same here! I have 120 hours plus! Not one of these. The only one is lag on 50v50 is you are all in and loads of people are using explosive weapons or anything that has an AoE.
But why are we not having them? The bouncing one is new to me... So it the chat thing... Is this because I only play in handheld? The only problem I have is not mentioned here. Sometimes when loading into the menu its all black, apart from the daily challenges and level/tier information on the left. I have to tab along and back. I sometimes get the same on the login part. The background doesn't load.
Ducky Momo is my very best friend.
@NEStalgia
If that were true then more of the industry would use IdTech... Instead they use Havok, Their own (Frostbite/SnowDrop), Unity or Unreal?
All joking aside, Epic aren't used to being this big. They are learning as they go. This is all new territory for the industry... A live service game on a console that is both a home console and handheld? They are trying. People need to be patient.
Been playing since its launch day, never had any of these issues. My Xbox One friend and I regularly rank in the top five when we team up, no problems for me on Switch.
@R4z0rGr1nd3r sits on rocking chair I remember when pretty much every third party game out there use the Quake 2 and then Quake 3 engines (idTech2 and 3, retroactively) and almost nobody touched Unreal with a 10 foot pole. I'm not quite sure what changed that. Havok's a physics model engine, not a game engine, pretty much every game uses that. Homemade is always optimum for those with the coin for it. But I really don't know when id vanished from engine talk and it all went to Epic. I think the disaster that was Doom3 put ID in a weird hole. Carmack falling away kind of messed up their momentum too. Heck that they were up for sale at all....the company that infamously bought every new employee a Lamborghini shows how things had cratered.
I'd written off id (especially without the wizardry of Carmack) but looking at what they're doing on Switch...yep, id's still got it. Even if Carmack's replacement is from Crytek.
The game stuttering at times has been intermittent for me, the biggest annoyance has been the initial landing, where the textures haven't loaded so I'm running into what I think is a door and it's just a solid hot mess of a building, and I get taken out. Despite this, I still play it more on the Switch than the PC.
Never had any of those issues outside of a few occasional frame rate dips here and there when 10+ players show up together in 50v50.
300+ hours clocked on Switch, all the problems are 100% accurate, even after they claim they've "improved performance". Epic need to hire a team to work on QA across console platforms, particularly Switch. They have the money.
@Deku-Scrub Yeah. The little loading is insane. There are times that the game just crashes before I even get the chance to get past the main loading screen
The latest 5.3 update has been the worst on my Switch so far. But I’ll probably continue to play in the coming weeks still despite it. I’ve racked up 60+ hours in this season alone, so I don’t think a few poor games or slow loading textures is enough to stop me quite yet. I don’t want to have to switch to PS4 and play without my hard earned skins! So if it’s too bad on Switch later, looks like I have my XB1 for more than Sunset Overdrive and Xbox 360 backwards compatibility
In all honesty, I haven't played it since it launched on the Switch.
I played a few rounds and quickly lost interest, mainly because I didn't know what the heck I was doing.
If I want to play a free-to-play competitive shooter game, I'll probably stick with Team Fortress 2. That, and Overwatch (although Overwatch is not F2P).
That's a shame. I played a bit of Fortnite over the summer and didn't encounter any issues. Well, except for the controls. They feel stiff and weird.
@HorridCrow yea same. Played loads and never had any serious issue. Certainly not unplayable in the slightest. Maybe people need better internet connections. Surely if it was the game it happen for everyone.
I still play it a ton on my Switch. This past few updates it has been pretty darn buggy, but those bugs only effect the first thirty seconds or so of the game while everything loads in. It's annoying, sure, but it doesn't really effect me. I typically just drop near a location, get a gun and then move in to the location after it's loaded. It's far from unplayable, but I would still like to see them putting a greater focus on the Switch version.
Thats why im sticking to Go Vacation, such a relaxing game😌
@KingdomHeartsFan My wife and I were saying the same thing. They are releasing too many new things each week that they don't have time to check properly. We do enjoy it when it is not as buggy!
You mean Epic, the company that took their much hyped and failed game and turned it into a BR with very little knowledge of how their own internal systems work, is unable to optimize their game on lower spec hardware? I've got a news flash for you all, the game runs terribly on all platforms no matter the specs. They have no idea how to optimize their game, only how to continue adding skins so they make money.
Weird... I deleted it on PS4, and stopped playing the PC version. I play almost every day, with full squads, while live streaming, and have no issues at all....
@chriscare Yup. Some people are playing with 2.5g wifi, and complain as if it's the game or consoles fault. Lol. Switch supports 5G wireless A/C. Use it people!
@shaneoh have to agree. I am a fan of PUBG but maybe it's just my age or something. I just find this game dull. It's just not that exciting. Played it for a good couple of months and deleted it.
Fortnite runs much better on iPad 2018, only downside is that there's no gamepad support yet.
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