Avid online gaming fans had mental meltdowns after they were shut out of one of the most anticipated events of the year.
After being delayed three times before, Fortnite’s virtual event “The Device” finally took place on Monday.
But after reaching capacity in just one minute after fans were told to arrive, all hell broke loose.
Epic Games advised fans to arrive 30 minutes before the 2 p.m. EDT start time to secure their spot — sensing that the in-game live event would fill up fast.
But then at 1:31 p.m., just one minute after the recommended queue time, the company announced that the event was full.
“Today’s event has reached capacity. If you’re not already in game, we recommend catching the event via livestream,” Epic tweeted.
After a number of fans lambasted the event, Epic followed up with a tweet promising to do better.
“We were overwhelmed by the response to The Device. At 12M players in-game, we capped participation for stability while 8.4M more watched live on Twitch + YouTube,” Epic wrote in a post that drew a thread of more than 2,500 comments.
“As we push the edge of what live-events can be, we’re improving systems so more of you can experience them in-game.”
Boasting over 350 million users worldwide, Fortnite is a free-to-play battle royale game — where a large number of players start a match and the last one who survives wins.
Epic Games, the Cary, N.C.-based video game developer behind Fortnite, was valued at more than $17 billion in 2020, Bloomberg reports.