Epic Games confirmed on Thursday that the Epic Games Store has been experiencing problems with loading times and errors among other issues. Those problems started occurring shortly after Grand Theft Auto V became free-to-own for those who got it from the launcher, a giveaway which very likely has something to do with the problems the store is currently encountering. An influx of players trying to download a free game that just so happens to be the most profitable game of all time would certainly cause such problems, but Epic Games said it’s aware of the issues and is looking into them.
The Epic Games Store Twitter account tweeted about the problems on Thursday not long after the acclaimed Grand Theft Auto game became available for free. Problems with loading times and other issuers were mentioned, and although Grand Theft Auto V wasn’t specifically mentioned, the “high traffic on the Epic Games Store” part of the tweet tells you everything you need to know.
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We are currently experiencing high traffic on the Epic Games Store.
We are aware that users may be encountering slow loading times, 500 errors, or launcher crashing at this time and we are actively working to scale. We’ll provide an update as soon as we can.
— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) May 14, 2020
Epic Games’ next big free game was revealed not long ago, and as far as the free games go, this is quite the giveaway. The Epic Games Store routinely makes certain games free to own with those games falling somewhere between hidden hits to acclaimed successes. Grand Theft Auto V is obviously on the latter end of that spectrum and is by far the biggest free game that’s been given away through the store.
Trying to access the store right now frequently leads to an error message that says the site can’t be loaded at the moment. It’s unclear when the problems will be resolved, but Epic Games said it’s working on the issues, so expect updates on them as the problems are fixed and people start redeeming their free copy of Grand Theft Auto V.
Along with the free games, the Epic Games Store has periodically been adding new features to the launcher. Some of those like wishlists were added in the past with more planned to come in the future.
