The big risk factor with any online title like Fortnite is having to make sure your servers can accommodate the number of concurrent players you'll have in a 'best-case scenario' setting. For the Fortnite Servers, this probably means a few hundred thousand players all logged in across Battle Royale, Creative and Save the World game modes.
Unfortunately, it seems like ever since Fortnite Chapter 3 began, server stability has become a thing of the past and we've suffered multiple outages in the last seven days alone. These outages are usually so rare that Fortnite compensates for them with Double XP weekends but, that's not the solution this time.
We want transparency
A huge source of frustration with the latest Fortnite Server outages is the lack of detail or explanation from Epic. There are people out there making a living off this game and these server issues are affecting that, not to mention the template copy and paste tweets that foreshadow servers going down, which are now met with furious backlash.
These messages warning of impending server issues we're always a pain but the fact we've seen them so frequently over the last month is tipping players over the edge. What players want is to understand why things have been so unstable lately.
Some will argue that as a free-to-play experience, Epic doesn't need to offer any explanation as to why the Fortnite Servers are so problematic. On the other hand, the sheer amount of time and money people have pumped into the game, for them not to be able to access their content easily does raise the question of entitlement.
What's next?
Sure, Epic might throw us another Supercharged XP weekend to keep the anger at bay and help everyone catch up on lost time, but it's not a long term solution. If the Fortnite Servers are suffering from issues greater than just short-term outages, players have a right to know. They deserve to know what the issue is, how it can be fixed and all while being assured that their data isn't at risk.
When Epic has worked so hard to make Chapter 3 this blockbuster event but people at times can't even access the game, what's the point of it all? As we start to look towards the next update, will that just bring further issues? What about Season 2, will that give us the answers we're looking for?
We can only hope that there are no more issues going forward and this becomes just a minor mark on what has been a great season of content so far.