No, it’s not just you — no one can play Fortnite right now.
The hottest game on the planet is down — and has been for over 12 hours — as a result of a database failure. Epic Games is in the process of carrying out major upgrades to its database systems, but there’s no word on when Fortnite will be playable again.
Epic rolled out its latest Fortnite content update on Tuesday, adding the Port-a-Fort, squad commands, a new limited-time game mode, and lots more. There’s also a fancy new replay system for players on console and PC. But not everyone has had a chance to try the new features yet.
Fortnite database knocked
Hours after the update rolled out, many players began suffering login issues that prevented them from playing Fortnite across all platforms. Epic later confirmed this was the result of a database failure affecting players around the world.
“We’ve worked to mitigate the issue, and are starting to see recovery,” read an update to the Epic status page just before 1 a.m. UTC this morning. Unfortunately for Fortnite fans, it wasn’t long before a more significant problem was uncovered.
A revival is in process
“The initial fix was unable to handle returning traffic, and we’re again experiencing issues with login success,” read another update just 15 minutes later. “We’ll be undergoing emergency downtime to deploy major upgrades to our database systems.”
Almost 12 hours later, those upgrades are still being carried out, and no one is able to play Fortnite on any platform. “We’re still working on the database upgrade process, and remain in downtime,” Epic says, with no word on when the process might be complete.
We expect Fortnite to return at some point today, but we could be waiting a few more hours yet. We’ll update this post as soon as Epic says that we can play again.
UPDATE: Epic has now apologized for the downtime on Reddit and provided another update:
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.
There’s also an update on the Epic status page:
We’ve made progress on our internal investigations and believe we may understand the problem!
Epic may have finally found a fix, then. It still doesn’t sound like the company is close to fixing the database issue, though. “We may understand the problem” is far from “we’re about to fix the problem.”
Who knows when Fortnite will be back online!
UPDATE X2: It looks like Fortnite is on its way back!
I can login to @FortniteGame again! pic.twitter.com/cr3SE47Rci
— Killian Bell (@killianbell) April 12, 2018
I’ve been able to login and get into a game of battle royale.
UPDATE X3: Epic has spoken again! Fortnite will return properly “over the next couple of hours,” but those playing on PlayStation 4 may have to wait a little longer.
Services should begin to recover over the next couple of hours. Due to issues with our account system, players on PS4 will be unable to login for an additional period of time. We’re sorry for the extended downtime. We’ll update you in an hour.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 12, 2018
