Fortnite for Xbox PC and Xbox Ally devices is currently broken for many — but a fix is on the way

A few weeks ago, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate got a big 50% price hike, but Microsoft and Epic Games teamed up to soften the blow — at least for some.

Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world, and continues to dominate with its casual-friendly high-stakes battle royale combat, crammed with cross-overs and licensed characters of all shapes and sizes.

The latest Fortnite update is a faithful recreation of Springfield from The Simpsons, as part of Epic Games’ big partnership with Disney and its satellite properties.

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For users on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox PC Game Pass, Microsoft managed to land a pretty big deal a few weeks ago. Fortnite Crew is now bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which offers a variety of goodies and monthly V-Bucks currency for subscribers. In addition, Fortnite joined Xbox Play Anywhere on PC, meaning that users can bypass the Epic Games Launcher on PC and run the game directly from the Xbox app on Windows 11.

At least … they should be able to in theory. Fortnite on Xbox PC isn’t actually delivering the game’s files right now for many users, likely owing to a delayed update triggering some kind of version mismatch.

I’ve been told by Microsoft Store sources that the issue is on Epic Games’ end, and a fix is coming down the pipeline, and should be live in the coming day or two. After that, users who got stuck on the wrong version should be able to download the full client in its entirety later on.

A cancelled update seems to have left the Xbox PC client in limbo. (Image credit: Windows Central | Jez Corden)

The outage, however, continues to highlight issues with the Microsoft Store as a delivery mechanism for games. The fact something like this can even happen in the first place showcases the legacy of structural and technical issues that continue to dog the Microsoft Store as a gaming platform. I’ve been talking to developers for a good while about how much they would like to see the Xbox PC ecosystem improved, and Microsoft has been delivering updates to its Xbox GDK and publishing policies to that end.

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Microsoft has been working flat out to improve the situation. The Microsoft Store user interface, led by Windows Phone legend Rudy Huhn, has improved by a truly gargantuan amount. The Xbox PC store has a ton of catching up to do, though, particularly since its interface is going to be what users on the next-gen Xbox see first. The Xbox Ally is effectively serving as a live beta test of sorts for the next-gen Xbox, so it doesn’t bode well every time a snag like this appears.

Still, the native Xbox PC support of games like Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite bodes well for the viability of Microsoft’s own “Steam” baked into Windows itself. The lack of organic support from independent developers, clunky interfacing, and relatively weak discovery tools are things that can hopefully be improved over time.

Microsoft is going up against Valve’s SteamOS in this universe, which has incredibly mature tools, social features, developer support, and interfacing — albeit with some challenges over kernel-level anti-cheat. Devices like the Steam Machine will miss out on easy access to some major third-party PC titles like the aforementioned “forever” games. The legions of high-quality Steam-exclusive indie titles more than makes up for it, though, particularly for the hardcore PC cohort Microsoft seems to want to deliver for.

In any case, it seems Fortnite will be fixed sooner, rather than later. The vast majority of games hitting Xbox PC do work out of the box without issues. But, it’s a shame that for thousands potentially trying Xbox PC out for the first time via Fortnite that this would be their first impression.

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