Fortnite players can’t decide if the game’s speed-reducing movement troubles constitute a bug or an unwelcomed feature.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that problems with movement speed have surfaced in the popular online game. At the start of Season 5, Epic Games significantly tweaked movement pacing to accommodate new character animations. Fortnite players were livid.
In response to the widespread backlash, the studio increased movement speed late in 2023. It seems these changes weren’t necessarily permanent, though.
Players have encountered more instances of reduced speed, leading some to wonder if the system as a whole is bugged.
Fortnite’s movement problems: Feature or bug?
“Let me just say [the] speed-reducing feature is atrocious,” wrote a user on Reddit whose post was accompanied by a clip demonstrating the issue.
The Redditor added that the game forcibly slows players down for going too fast when sliding. “It feels so jittery and rough. I wish the speed-reducing feature just didn’t even exist,” they continued.
While probably not the intention, the user’s post opened a can of worms on the Fortnite subreddit. That the original poster repeatedly called Fortnite’s movement issue a “feature” sparked a debate, with players going back and forth about whether or not the slowed movement is purposeful.
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One confused Redditor asked if the slow-down issue constitutes a feature, to which someone else replied with the following: “It’s not lag or a feature it’s a bug and a very annoying one because it stops you from running normally the whole game unless you can get rebooted.”
Elsewhere, someone else shared their two cents by noting, “I can’t tell if it’s a bug or a feature. I can’t consistently do it.”
Others said this particular hiccup may only happen under certain circumstances and offered tips on possible solutions. “It happened to me after using one of those little jump pads. It fixed after I used another one, try also getting into a car.”
Another Fortnite player shared this helpful tip: “This has been a glitch for a while now, but the new speed update made it even worse. Try crouching, then uncrouching, then start running. It normally works for me but other times it doesn’t.”
Evidently, Fortnite faithful remain in the dark about what’s going on with the game’s movement system. But the consensus seems pretty clear – the community wants Epic to issue a fix as soon as possible.