January 09, 2020 update
v11.40 update will be deployed on Thursday, January 16 at the latest. The date has been confirmed through data miners, such as Lucas7Yoshi, who have dug up files from test servers in the game. The information is still to be taken with a pinch of salt, since Epic Games hasn't said anything for the moment. The publisher has only confirmed the arrival of several weeks of Overtime challenges.
Epic Games haven't released any Fortnite updates or patch notes since v11.31. This update was deployed on December 18, three weeks ago. All this makes us wonder what Epic Games has been doing all this time. Well, their developers and employees are on break for the winter holidays. This has also been the case for the last two years with one major difference: last year two updates had been scheduled.
So one question remains: when will the next Fortnite update be deployed? Rumors tended to say that v11.40 will go live on January 7-8 — right after the end of the seasonal event called Winterfest. However, last year they only released the update after taking a whole four weeks off — bringing us to January 14-15 if they decide to do the same thing again.
That would make a whole month without any major new features, which seems unthinkable for Epic Games. We know that the next update will mark the end of the Fortnite x Star Wars collaboration and may also release some fixes that are currently being investigated.
It isn't clear whether the end of the snowpack will mean the arrival of the v11.40 update, but one thing is certain: the snow is melting at breakneck speed. Since Tuesday evening, and starting from Slurpy Swamp, the grass has taken back its rightful place. At this rate, in a few hours the whole map will be back to its original landscape.
Surprisingly, no last event related to Winterfest is expected despite the recent blizzards that have swept the island suggesting a potential event to come soon.
In terms of balancing the game, more and more connoisseurs think that the workbench — undoubtedly the feature that have been least used in competition or by casual players — would deserve a little buff in this patch! Too expensive in terms of resources, the workbench remains extremely situational...
For now, all we can do is to be patient and paradoxically expect a downtime very soon.
Good or evil? The Ark and Malcore skins are in today's Fortnite Shop so you can show which side you're on.
