The biggest game in the world has been down for over 12 hours worldwide, and the makers are working around the clock to fix the problem
- The biggest game in the world right now is "Fortnite," with tens of millions of people playing monthly.
- The game, which is played entirely online, has been offline since Wednesday night.
- Epic Games, the studio that makes "Fortnite," has been working non-stop on a fix, but still has "no ETA" on when the game will be live again.
It's not just you: "Fortnite" is offline for everyone at the moment.
More specifically, the wildly popular "Fortnite: Battle Royale" mode that pits 100 players against each other in a fight to the death is offline. And it has been since Wednesday night, with "no ETA" on a fix in sight, according to Epic Games.
Representatives for the North Carolina-based game studio behind "Fortnite" took to Reddit to explain what happened:
"We're sorry for the ongoing extended instability. We had a critical failure with one of our account service databases. As a result, our login and matchmaking systems are unstable. Our team has been working through the night on fixes in order to bring the game fully back up. Right now we don't know how long it will take, but we will update you hourly. Thanks for your patience while we work to resolve these issues."
What that means for now is you can't play "Fortnite: Battle Royale" on any of the many platforms it's available on, from PlayStation 4 to iPhone (and everything else).
Our attempt to access the game on a PlayStation 4 was met with the following message:
If you've somehow managed to miss the "Fortnite" phenomenon thus far, you may be wondering what this is all about.
The free-to-play game is a third-person shooter in the "Battle Royale" genre - 100 unarmed players parachute to an island, scavenge for supplies, and attempt to survive. If you're the last one left, you win!
"Fortnite" has become such a phenomenon that celebrities like Drake have taken to playing it with major video game streamers. And thus, there are quite a few angry folks out there who'd like to get back into the game - somewhere in the realm of 45 million people are playing the game, though that number has assuredly grown since its recent launch on iPhone.
Unfortunately, for the moment, no one's playing it. If you're looking for regular updates, here's the best place to stay in the know.