What is "Night Night" in Fortnite and how does it affect the downtime?

As per the latest leaks, the downtime for Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 will be a bit longer than expected. This is not due to negligence on Epic Games' part but something else entirely.

According to leaker iFireMonkey, the developers quietly added a certain file called "Night Night" back into the game. As the name would suggest, it indicates falling asleep for the night, and this is exactly what the servers are going to do during downtime.

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What is "Night Night" in Fortnite?

For the uninitiated, "Night Night" is brought into play and used to activate a "To Be Continued" or showcase a Blackhole screen in-game. This was the case at the end of Chapter 1 Season 10, and a similar incident occurred at the end of Chapter 2 Season 8.

During this timeframe, the game will be unplayable, which is not something out of the ordinary. But what makes this different from other normal downtimes is the length. "Night Night" can be in effect for well over a day if needed.

Since the live event will now take place on June 4 and the new season will commence on June 5, there will likely be a 24-hour wait before being able to jump into the game. Here are a few possible reasons as to why the downtime will take so long.

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Three reasons why the downtime for Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 will take a long time

1) Map changes

The Doomsday Device is currently active and pulsating on the Fortnite island. It's unclear what it's capable of, but it's clearly powering up. When it reaches maximum capacity and becomes operational, something bad is likely to occur.

In the best-case scenario, the Imaged Order floods the island. Worst case scenario, they wipe out all of reality. Either way, the island is likely to sustain damage, which means a lot of assets will have to be changed.

This being the case, Epic Games' developers will have to carefully check each location to ensure it's working properly. This will take a lot of time and effort and is likely the main reason why the downtime will take so long.

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2) Potential riding mechanics

In Chapter 2, riding mechanics were leaked for a while. However, as Chapter 3 began, the flow of information regarding the same dwindled and eventually came to a grinding halt.

However, about two weeks ago, Fortnite leaker HYPEX discovered that Epic Games had once again resumed work on rideable animals. If it comes to fruition next season, testing the mechanics out will take a while.

Given how dynamic physics work in-game, testing certain parameters will be important. The last thing that players would want is to be shot off their mount and launched upward into the sky.

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3) Creative 2.0

With Unreal Engine 5 going live and rumors of Creative 2.0 floating about, there's a strong possibility of it being added next season. With the amount of testing that the developers will require, using "Night Night" for downtime makes perfect sense.

They will have to check to what extent the new creative mode can be misused and implement hotfixes in real-time. Given that it's a huge ask from the community releasing it in a broken state will not be received well by content creators and fans alike.