The rumors have been proven true.Grand Theft Auto 5is being given away as the Epic Games Store’s current free game of the week. There’s just one problem. In everyone’s excitement to acquire one of the best games of the generation for free, they’ve taken down the entire Epic Games Store. As if that wasn’t enough, it now appears thatFortnitehas been taken down, too. Millions of players playFortniteevery day, but apparentlyGrand Theft Autois just that popular.
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Normally, when anEpic Games Store free game unlocksthere isn’t a queue of thousands waiting to take advantage. Epic Games Store users just get the game when they see a notification or get a news update later in the day. Due to the leak, there were likely a huge amount of gamers waiting to acquiredGrand Theft Auto 5all at once. Even a platform that sees millions of users go through a day doesn’t expect them to all be online and in the same place at the same time.
Fortniteseems to be collateral damage in this situation. Users trying to getGrand Theft Auto 5didn’t just crash the Epic Games Store, they crashedEpic’s online services. That means thatFortnite’s login server and its back-end handling microtransactions purchases are effectively being hit by a denial of service attack.
According to the official Fortnite Status social media account,Fortnitebegan experiencing issues shortly afterGrand Theft Auto 5went live on the Epic Games Store. Epic says that it’s currently investigating the issues on PC and that it’ll provide an update as it’s able.
The solution to the ongoing problem should be evident. For those trying to getGrand Theft Auto 5for free, maybe wait a few hours or even a day or two. For those trying to playFortnite, maybe try another game for a little while. The lessEpic Games Store usersonline at the moment, the faster Epic can get servers running smoothly again.
Fortniteis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and mobile devices.
