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The beta for portal-infused arena shooter Splitgate has become so popular that it's running into a real-life math problem.
Splitgate went into beta earlier this month, and the developers at 1047 Games have been enjoying the massive success of the first game from their small team. Unfortunately, little did they realize that the database powering their server architecture has a built-in limitation of 65,536 concurrent players. Why that number in particular? Easy, because it's 2 to the 16th power - and if there's one thing that computers absolutely love, it is the various powers of 2. Just can't get enough of 'em.
We spent all night optimizing more but after talking to AWS, we learned our database (redis) can only handle 65,536 concurrent players (what we hit last night). So no optimizations matter yet. We are working on a queue system to let 65k ppl in until we remove this limitation. pic.twitter.com/SBDpzk0vTyJuly 22, 2021
If you try to log into Splitgate when there are already 216 players busily fragging one another through rifts in space and time, you'll be greeted with this screen, which carefully stipulates that the servers are not offline - they're just completely full. The server issues are also contributing to a UI glitch which makes it look like players have lost all their progress from playing the beta, which is understandably upsetting but also, thankfully, untrue.
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The developers say they're working on a queue system so players can at least drop in and wait without hitting the refresh button over and over again. That's only intended to be a stopgap measure, and in the meantime they're also looking for a solution which will let the game handle more players at once. I have no idea what that would look like practically speaking, but I can only assume it's more complicated than pulling up the database, highlighting a "16," and changing it to a "17."
Even if you aren't able to get into the beta now, the full version of Splitgate is also going to be free-to-play, and it's scheduled for launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on July 27. Hopefully these issues will be straightened out in time for the full rollout.
If you're still waiting for your chance to join the Splitgate beta, you could always pass the time with some picks from our list of the best FPS games you can play right now.
