Hunt: Showdown will be offline for 48 hours in order to prepare for the biggest update yet.

Hunt: Showdown will undergo a major transformation next week when it transitions to Hunt: Showdown, 1896. It will feature an upgraded engine, a revamped UI and sweeping meta changes, as well as introducing a brand-new map, the first in three years. This is the good news. The bad news is a major update means a lot of downtime. Hunt: Showdown won't be available for two days starting tomorrow.

Crytek tweeted: "This is it Hunters." "We are only a few days away from the launch date of Hunt: Showdown, 1896. As noted in July, Hunt Showdown servers will be going dark for 48-hours starting Tuesday, August 13, at 7pm CEST (1pm ET).

This means that the game will not be available on any platform while we prepare Mammon's Gulch to welcome you. We appreciate your patience, understanding and support as we embark on a new era in Hunt together.

It's a lot of downtime. But as a relentless optimist, I'm going with the assumption that Crytek is being cautious. The upgrade itself may only take 20 minutes, but developers have built in a large buffer to ensure players don't get upset about possible side trips to a goat rodeo. (The upgrade will take longer than 20 minutes but you get my point.)

Hunt: Showdown fans seem to be happy to wait despite the long downtime. Twitter and Reddit responses are more excited about 1896 than they're put off by the prolonged downtime. There's also a nice discussion about what people will play while they wait if you're looking for ideas.