Following the devastating news of more than a thousand layoffs at Epic Games in the wake of an effort to streamline its “cost economics”, Fortnite fans are now going to have to deal with the removal of three game modes that have arguably been a part of the title’s popularity in recent years.
The first among them is Rocket Racing, a Mario Kart-like addition from developer Psyonix (Rocket League) that brought quite an entertaining arcade racing gameplay loop that’s sure to be missed when it goes offline in October 2026. That includes all raving islands created with UEFN, along with racing templates for new ones. There will be no more Rocket Racing Quests and Ranked Rewards starting next week, although the fact that you can still use your custom cars in other game modes is a small consolation.
While Rocket Racing’s exit is still a while away, Ballistic fans aren’t going to be so lucky as the mode is on its way out next month, leaving you with precious little time to enjoy it. While FPS island support will continue to be provided on UEFN, Epic Games asserts that the platform will need more functionality before a similar mode is possible (and there’s no timeline for the same).
Last but not least is the Festival Battle Stage, which will continue to operate normally in Harmonix’s Fortnite Festival until it shuts down on April 16, presumably to enable a more robust approach to content creation for other music modes such as Main Stage and Jam Stage. Epic Games had this to say about the removal of the three modes:
“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases, we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base. We are going to shut these modes down on the schedules outlined below – we’re grateful for everyone who played.”
The path forward remains murky for Fortnite, but perhaps its partnership with the Unity Engine could help turn its fortunes around. Either way, the tweet below is now the latest blow to the title, and all we can do is commiserate and share fond memories of these modes before they disappear.
https://x.com/FortniteStatus/status/2036451164347109440
