Fortnite's controversial glider re-deploy feature is being removed from all default game modes

Epic has announced that it will be removing Fortnite's recently implemented, and highly divisive, glider re-deploy mechanic from all default game modes.

Glider re-deploy, unsurprisingly, enables players to deploy their glider during free-fall from a certain height at any point during a match, rather than merely at the start of a game. The mechanic first appeared during Fortnite's limited-time Soaring 50s mode in August, and transitioned to the the game's default modes - solos, duos, and squads - as a "test" just two weeks ago. The change immediately proved controversial.

While plenty of players (including pretty much everyone at Eurogamer) loved the faster-paced play-style and increased fluidity that glider re-deploy brought to the core Fortnite experience, others - some peeved at the sudden obsolescence of their previously winning strategies, and some frustrated with changes to the meta - were less keen. In the end, the nays won out.

Epic announced the removal of glider re-deploy in a new post on the Fortnite website, noting that the studio had not lived up "to expectations of quickly iterating on the mechanic and communicating plans." Unfortunately, Epic offered no specific explanation as to why the feature is now going bye-bye just a few weeks after it reported "positive results" during its testing phase, only that re-deploy will remain in Playground and larger team modes (Soaring 50s, Disco Domination, etc.) "to allow ongoing experimentation".

Glider re-deploy will be removed from Fortnite's default modes as of update v6.30, which is scheduled to go live later this week.