Fortnite is down with players being told they don’t ‘have permission to play’

By Otto Kratky Published December 29, 2021

As kids and adults alike enjoy their holiday breaks, one thing they won’t be doing, for now, is playing Fortnite. The massively popular battle royale title has gone offline.

While Epic games has previously closed the game’s servers to update it, like with its recent Chapter 3 update, the sudden issues preventing players from logging in are not part of the developer’s plan.

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Fortnite is currently unavailable and players are unable to log-in while we investigate an issue.

We'll provide more info when we have a solution to bring services back online. pic.twitter.com/B3wXvu5SL6

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 29, 2021

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According to a post on Twitter, Epic games began investigating issues with players not being able to log into Fortnite or get into a match around 8 a.m. PT. However, just an hour ago the official Fortnite Status account followed up, saying that the game “is currently unavailable and players are unable to log-in while we investigate an issue.” It seems that for now, the game is totally offline, with any other details on why the game is down being kept internal.

However, not all users are having the same experience when they try to log in to Fortnite. Some are getting a strange screen that tells them, much like a mom who catches a kid playing a game at 1 a.m., that they “do not have permission to play Fortnite.” It’s not clear when players will once again have permission to play the game and be able to freely log in.

Fortnite‘s downtime comes during one of the first moments that just about anyone can play the game’s latest update, Fortnite Chapter 3. The update radically changed the game when it arrived earlier this December, changing the game’s map and adding new gameplay mechanics, like the ability to aim down sights or swing around like Spider-Man.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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