The rumors have been proven true. Grand Theft Auto 5 is 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 that Fortnite has been taken down, too. Millions of players play Fortnite every day, but apparently Grand Theft Auto is just that popular.
Rumors started this past week regarding Grand Theft Auto 5 coming to the Epic Games Store. A leaker shared the rumor with gaming outlets, leading to a lot of gamers excitedly watching the EGS countdown time for the free game go down. If that wasn't enough, an EGS social media account accidentally confirmed the news by posting an advertisement for Grand Theft Auto 5 early. If there weren't a lot of people waiting for Grand Theft Auto 5 to unlock before, the confirmation certainly raised the bar.
Normally, when an Epic Games Store free game unlocks there 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 acquired Grand Theft Auto 5 all 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.
Fortnite seems to be collateral damage in this situation. Users trying to get Grand Theft Auto 5 didn't just crash the Epic Games Store, they crashed Epic's online services. That means that Fortnite'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, Fortnite began experiencing issues shortly after Grand Theft Auto 5 went 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 get Grand Theft Auto 5 for free, maybe wait a few hours or even a day or two. For those trying to play Fortnite, maybe try another game for a little while. The less Epic Games Store users online at the moment, the faster Epic can get servers running smoothly again.
Fortnite is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and mobile devices.
