Fortnite

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.