Titanfall, the new multiplayer shooting game for the Xbox One, officially opened its doors to thousands of eager gamers this morning at midnight. While the game has been the subject of a massive advertising and press coronation as the first new thing in the genre in a very long time, the early hours of the launch have been marred by very old problems.
Dozens of frustrated gamers have taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure and frustration with their inability to connect to the game's servers.
so uh yeah this connecting screen is the best. #titanfall
LOL already got booted and having trouble with server connecting. To be expected but OH GAWD WHY #Titanfall
This Titanfall 'Connecting' mini-game isn't very fun.
My favorite Titanfall boss is this connecting window.
@Respawn what's up with the constant connecting screen on titanfall for Xbox one it's been 15 mins for real what a horrible impression.
CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING. CONNECTING.CONNECTING. #TitanFall #TitanFail
Frustrated gamers have started to turn that "Connecting" screen into a series of jokes. Images of the screen with titles like "How To Play Titanfall", "This Gameplay Is Truly Incredible", "Game of the Year Material" are rising to the top of the influential r/gaming subreddit.
Of course, launch snafus due to overtaxed servers are nothing new: In the past year, both SimCity and Grand Theft Auto Online experienced major problems due to a massive influx of users at launch. And these kind of capacity issues aren't unique to gaming; the crush of people trying to watch the finale of True Detective on Sunday crashed HBOGo.
Both Microsoft and Sony sold their new consoles on the promise of a new, always-connected, increasingly social age of gaming. But as the problematic launch of the first truly massive release for this new generation of consoles shows, getting everyone excited isn't the problem; it's getting everyone who is excited into the game.