Massive Internet Outage Brings Down Games Like 'Fortnite' And 'Roblox'

Tech

Oct 21

Amazon is one of the few companies that seems to own so many things. It’s no surprise, then, that Amazon also owns internet hosting services. Through its same-named service, Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS, it hosts numerous platforms like Twitch, which it owns, and many online games. It is currently the world’s largest cloud service provider.

On Monday, 20th October, some AWS services went down. This outage, which was reported at their US-East-1 data center, brought down numerous websites and services. This included some online games and platforms. Nintendo Online, Fortnite, and Roblox all reported that their services were not available.

It also affected Clash Royale and popular Pokémon-adjacent game, Palworld, from being played. Some reported issues using the Epic Games Store as well. By 6 AM, though, recovery was reported to have been seen across the affected services.

The disruptions spread beyond the gaming sphere, however, with Amazon itself reporting issues. Reddit, Snapchat, Duolingo, and Ring (the doorbell and home safety services company) also reported issues.

It highlights the growing centralization of services under a few company ownerships and the wide impact that this can have/

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