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Bots Are Coming To Fortnite Next Season

Fortnite's battle royale mode is getting a very big change next season; one that has the potential to grow the game's audience, but might also alienate current players. According to a post from Epic today, bots are set to be introduced to Fortnite next season. Yes, bots. Opponents controlled by artificial intelligence.

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Here's what Epic had to say.

"In the next Season, we are adding Bots to Fortnite. They will behave similarly to normal players and will help provide a better path for players to grow in skill. Bots will work in conjunction with the new matchmaking system, and as your skill improves, you'll face fewer Bots. Bots will not be present in Competitive playlists. This is another system that we will continue to update and iterate."

To be honest, we had to double and then triple-check to make sure we were actually looking at the Epic Games website. Why? Because we know Fortnite players, and we know how they respond when Epic makes small, yet still meta-altering changes to Fortnite's battle royale mode. Remember how the B.R.U.T.E. mechs went over? The mechs always seemed like a fun thing that were never going to stick around but a season, yet fans of the game — including many professional players and streamers — went to war trying to get Epic to take the mechs out of the game entirely.

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The addition of bots, however, will be a marked shift in the way we all play Fortnite going forward. In the non-competitive playlists, we'll no longer be able to reliably face off against 99 other human players. Bots are going to be filling some of those spots, and depending on who you are, they're either going to be easy to kill or too skilled. And frankly, neither one feels all that great to play with. Getting killed by a bot sucks, because it feels like the game is cheating. And killing a bot? That also sucks, because it feels like the game offered you a dummy to kill out of pity.

Epic's statement on the matter came as part of an update about matchmaking changes in Fortnite, and the section about bots was short and sweet. We imagine, however, that the community will not let the discussion end there. When more people start learning about the bots, expect there to be online riots.

Like, if you thought the chatter around the B.R.U.T.E. mechs was bad, just wait.

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