'Fortnite' Servers Shut Down by Epic to Investigate Issues

For Fortnite players, the start of Fortnite Season 5 should be a reason to play all night to see all the big changes that happened in the game. That sadly is not the case, as Epic Games took down the game servers to solve an issue affecting players.

In a tweet Thursday evening, Epic announced it was having issues with the game services for Fortnite. These problems prevented players from logging in and finding a match. In order to figure out the problem, the developer decided to shut down the servers. Late Thursday evening, Epic tweeted an update saying the servers are back online. The developer did advise players that there might be a queue when logging in.

Since its launch Thursday morning, Fortnite Season 5 had a few issues popping up throughout the day. The first problem started several hours after the Season 5 update was applied when a large number of players were trying to login causing long queue times. Epic quickly remedied the problem to accommodate everyone.

Another issue Epic identified during the day was connectivity problems with voice chat services. Then later in the afternoon, PlayStation Fortnite players experienced additional problems with the game. Specifically, they were unable to create a party with their squad. Both issues have yet to be addressed by Epic.

Fortnite players didn’t have to wait long for the servers to go back up. Back in April, one issue took down the game repeatedly for days. To show their appreciation for players sticking with them, Epic did provide some rewards.

Fortnite Season 5, prior to shutting down, was a huge update for Epic. Not only did it add two new areas to the game, but it also added a vehicle: Golf Carts. These carts, however, are not the ordinary carts found on a golf course as they can fly across the island and drift.

Editor’s Note: As of 10:59 p.m. Eastern, 7/12/2018, this story has been updated to reflect the most current information about the servers.