'Fortnite' game servers have gone offline

Epic Game’s third-person shooter Fortnite is offline right now. Players have been experiencing difficulties logging into the game and queuing up for matches today.

The official Fortnite Status Twitter account, which provides server status update for the game, tweeted out around 9AM PT this morning that Fortnite devs are currently investigating the game issues. Another update released at 12PM PT confirmed that the game is still offline due to “stability issues.”

Before the servers went offline, users were seeing an error message when trying to log in to the game that left many confused. While trying to launch the game, some saw a screen that said “You do not have permission to play Fortnite,” leading some to wonder if they had been banned. Others reported that their games were crashing randomly during matches.

Even Twitch streamer Ninja — who’s known for his Fortnite content — experienced technical issues with the game. During his Twitch stream this morning, he was stuck on a loading screen for several minutes and struggled to get into the game. He was then placed into a seven-minute queue which never ended. After an hour of trying to get onto Fortnite, Ninja gave up.

It’s unclear whether there is a correlation, but the Epic Games Store was also down around the same time Fortnite’s issues began. Users were unable to download, install or launch any games via the Epic Games Launcher desktop app. These issues with the Epic app are now resolved for some, as Fortnite is currently downloadable, but the game’s servers remain offline.

Little else is known about why Fortnite’s servers are down right now, though Game Rant speculates that Epic Games took the servers down intentionally while they work on resolving its technical troubles.