Middle East 'Fortnite' Players Asking for Server for Stable Ping
Fortnite players in the Middle East have been stuck with ridiculously high ping for the past year, which makes playing the game competitively almost impossible. Currently, Epic Games has six main servers located around the world in places like Korea, Japan, Brazil, Oceania Europe and North America. Epic Games uses Amazon Web services for their servers, which hosts other huge traffic sites like Netflix, Airbnb and Reddit.
If you try to play Fortnite your physical distance from a server impacts your speed. The farther away you are, the longer it takes for your computer, console or mobile device to receive and send inputs. Your lag gets higher and higher and, as a result, your play gets worse. Some Middle East players are reporting ping anywhere from 100 to 1100, making the game mostly unplayable. How can you hit an enemy with a tiny crosshair if the game registers your inputs seconds after you actually make contact?
#FortniteMiddleEastServers has started to trend on Twitter, with more than two million posts calling for new servers. Players in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait have been spamming the hashtag in an attempt to get Epic Games to notice.
#fortnitemiddleeastserver pic.twitter.com/F7F7wkYElo
— HYPER (@HYPER54700893) January 7, 2019
#fortnitemiddleeastserver
— ATR - YAZAN (@LuxinYoutube) January 7, 2019
Launch a middle eastern server, middle easterns are oppressed when it comes to fortnite, ping is a major issue to all of us! Only a few have 60-100 ping while the rest have 300+, do something.#MakeAMiddleEasternServer
Even high profile streamers are joining the cause, with Dakotaz tweeting his support.
Fortnite players have a lot to be excited about in 2019. Epic Games is committed to keeping their battle royale the most successful game in the world and aren't afraid to give players what they want. The 14 Days of Fortnite event has been prolonged by a week and the Suppressed Sniper Rifle, which allows players to attack from afar without giving away their position, is coming to the game. For those of us in Europe or the Americas, we can just jump straight into a match and not to have to worry about how bad our connection is going to be.
It's unclear if Fortnite will ever actually get a Middle East server. The area has more than two million players who have been stuck without a good connection. Adding a server in the area would certainly help those players, but it's unclear if this attention will be enough.
