How much time does Epic have to fix this game before their fan base for Fortnite is just gone? I'm talking gone....like Evolve gone.
Well, while I hate to say it, a lot of it depends on what the community as a whole feels. There is no denying people are pissed here and other places, but this doesn't always reflect what a lot of people think and feel. A good example of this is Destiny and raids.
If you actually take the time to compare trophies, only something like four percent of the population that was "prepared" for a raid never got it done. In fact, if you go off percents, a lot of people were underprepared and were carried or didn't quite pull their fair weight. However, you can read some Reddit posts that suggest without matchmaking it's practically impossible to get a group for/complete.
As for a realistic number, it's going to be based off 1.5. Right now people are expecting a change and many believe it's going to be 1.5. If that doesn't change things for the better, I think it's going to destroy the community and result in the vast majority quitting within the following weeks.
What is really problematic is, no matter how much fun the game is, there are a lot of problems besides content or progression. There is also how matchmaking is handled, the way alerts work, transformation key costs and much more.
Even if they decide to fix some things, the result might not be favorable. As much as I might like a better progression system, it's hard to say if fixing that will get me into playing Fortnite again. The amount of negativity and time wasted on missions is a problem and I can't rely on four people always being around and interested in doing the same thing, especially given how the community seems to be shrinking.
In either case, what Epic needs to do is release a statement that they inspires some level of confidence in the future of the game. Because, right now, it looks like they released it to make as much money as quickly as possible and hope that they will make it back from whales or people buying into how much fun the early game is. Not a great practice for long term growth, but if they want to do a short burnout, it might work.