Why did Fortnite go down?

Fortnite experienced one of its longest downtimes this week, with Epic Games promising to make it up to players soon.

Gamers logging in to access the relatively new season of the battle royale title were met with the 'Connecting' screen, and nothing else – leaving millions unable to access the game itself. 

Usually, there's some downtime when a major update is being pushed through. Every new chapter, which usually brings new skins, new abilities, and an updated layout of the Fortnite map, needs to be offline while this happens.

However, this was unscheduled, and some of the TechRadar team were also caught up in the downtime as we travelled home for the new year.

What happened?

At around 4PM GMT / 11AM US time, players would try to log in to a match in Fortnite, but would be brought to a screen that would try to connect to the Epic Games' servers.

It wasn't until a visit to Downdetector or Twitter, though, that many users discovered they weren't alone in being unable to play, with Epic Games recognizing the issue soon after.

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With many users receiving gifts over the holidays, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that the one game many tried out first was Fortnite.

Combining this with others having to self-isolate due to Covid-19, and it'd be a safe bet to say that the Fortnite servers suffered an unusual amount of overload, bringing the game to a halt for everyone.

However, after approximately six hours, the servers were back online, allowing gamers to dive back into the map with their squad. 

Epic Games is also gifting every player an additional present to make up for the downtime. If you've been playing the game in December, you can access a Lodge, which allows you to unwrap a present on certain days, gifting you costumes and skins.

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Analysis: Being caught in the downtime at Kings Cross

Having spent a few days in London, I had brought my Switch along to carry on my progress in Fortnite, as I've been wanting to acquire the Spider-Man skin that's in Chapter 3.

With our train being delayed, we sat at a table, and, having connected my Switch to my iPhone 13 Pro, I decided to earn some more XP.

Fortnite on Nintendo Switch

(Image credit: Future)

Not long after this picture was taken, I started to experience significant lag, which is definitely why I finished the match at number 51 out of 100 in battle royale mode.

While it was frustrating for me, it only shows the huge popularity that the game still maintains since it debuted in 2017.

With bizarre team-ups of Master Chief, Superman, Lara Croft, and Spider-Man, this is a big part of what appeals to many players, including me.

It's a game that rewards your efforts through random tasks, and that's why it's an ideal title to play when you have some extra time to spare. 

Except when there's some unexpected downtime, of course.

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WhatsApp doubles down on business searches within the app itself

In a big thrust into e-commerce and business, WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to let users search for nearby businesses, right within the app. The feature, when it becomes fully mainstream, will help the messaging platform to make an impact in one area where it has not made much headway – business & commerce segment. 

According to the ever reliable team at WABetainfo, WhatsApp had made available a nifty business directory to users in Sao Paulo a couple of months back. And the new search option for nearby businesses is an extension of that. “When you search for something within WhatsApp, there will be a new section called “Businesses Nearby”: when you select the category, the results of business accounts will be filtered based on your choice,” the report said.

Businesses will be happy with the putative feature as it will allow them to become more visible, directly from inside WhatsApp.

Business directory may come first

The new business search option within WA

The new business nearby search options within WA.  (Image credit: WABetainfo)

So, soon you can basically search for things like hotels, eateries, groceries or clothing, without leaving the app. This useful tool will be available to both iOS and Android users.  

This feature has been made available to some users in Sao Paulo but is not available yet for all. But it is likely that WhatsApp will first roll out the aforesaid business directory feature and then follow it up with the search tool. But it is something that would be worth the wait.

Once users are allowed to search for products and services nearby it will be only a matter of time before they can place orders for the same.

It is clear that the folks at WhatsApp are doubling down on business and commerce segment for future growth of the platform.  WhatsApp recently introduced a redesigned page for Business Info.

WhatsApp is also planning to redesign the page for Contact Info, in that it will have a search shortcut.

In-app shopping possibilities have grown across the social media platform’s apps. WhatsApp now also features shopping tools including product catalogs and shopping cart options for businesses to use.

Meta has announced new shopping and discovery tools, including Shops on WhatsApp.

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Is Google Calendar down?

Is Google Calendar down? The widely-use calendar service provided by Google, and synced with many of our work and personal email accounts, appears to be having trouble keeping it together.

A number of TechRadar staff are seeing Google Calendar dip in and out of live service, with a '500' error code coming up instead of our usual view of events, meetings, reminders, and more meetings.

More on this as the story develops…

It looks like a global problem

Google Calendar appears to be down for TechRadar's UK staff, flitting in and out of service. We have word that the service is experiencing issues worldwide, from contacts in India and Spain too.

Reported cases are rising

Downdetector is reporting a surge in user-generated reports of Google Calendar issues since 9am GMT (1am PST / 4am EST). Only 16 reports in the view so far, but 0-16 in the space of 20 minutes shows something is picking up.

Users are taking to social media

People are cottoning on to the service being down, though the official Google Calendar Twitter account has yet to post anything about the issues.

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Be free, workers!

Some are taking the outage on a lighter note, such as Twitter user @jerelleaj, who celebrates that they must “have nothing planned for today”. Performance review? What performance review?

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Partial functionality?

You may find that you can enter the Google Calendar, and only see a few events out of your usually-packed schedule. I'm able to see my own events, and things I've confirmed attendance to – stored locally – but my work calendar of everything else going on in the company is absent. Sorry boss.

I was able to use a Google Calendar event to jump into a Google Meet video call, so you may be able to briefly gain access for an important meeting if you keep trying. We tend to switch between half-filled screen and full-on error message every time we refresh the page, though.

Reports continue to pour in

Downdetector is now reporting a whopping 2,960 issues – and the real number is likely to be far beyond that, given that the site relies on user-generated complaints.

Users commenting on the website say that Calendar is “down for Romania as well”, “Not working in Czech Republic”, “Unable to sync in India”, and “Down in Denmark.” France and Greece appear to be affected too – is anyone left out?

A Google in denial

No official word from Google yet, and the Google Workspace Status Dashboard shows Google Calendar as working perfectly fine. Read the room, Google.

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