Fortnite's millions of gamers have literally been left in the dark.
The hugely-popular online video game, which has taken the industry by storm during the past couple of years, is currently, well, offline. And it's turned into one big mystery.
Here's what we know so far...
What happened?
Let's just quickly explain first, for those who don't know, that Fortnite is a game where 100 players take part in a last-man-standing battle which involves weapons and building structures.
It is played on an island, which was destroyed on Sunday night by an asteroid that had been in the game since the start of season 10. Players were sucked into a dark void in what has become known as "The End".
Fortnite's season X event, The End, just wiped out the whole island #Theend #Fortnite #PS4share pic.twitter.com/UbDe9wMuRw
— James Jarvis @ Gamescom (@James_Jarvis) October 13, 2019
The screen then just turned black except for a circular hole in the centre. This scene has since been live-streamed on Fortnite's Twitter and YouTube pages ever since and has received hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets.
What has Fortnite's owner said?
There's been nothing from Epic Games since. It had earlier confirmed that "The End" event would take place on Sunday, October 13, but there has been no confirmation on when gamers will be able to get back online again and whether it will be with a new map, new season or anything.
It did however comment on problems users were having logging in to its Games Store, which happened around the time of The End.
We are aware that some folks are unable to login to the Epic Games launcher and are working on getting the service back to normal. As a work around, you can elect to skip login to access games that don't require you to be online. pic.twitter.com/Ql1MgnWtmE
— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) October 13, 2019
As for the Fortnite page on Twitter, it has had all of its tweets deleted – possibly sucked into the black hole as well – and so nobody really know what's going on.
PlayStation did, however, ease the fears of some gamers who were concerned about losing their inventory items during the blackout, as it confirmed that they would be secure.
Please be assured that your inventory items and V-Bucks are secure during the Fortnite Blackout. For any other Fortnite questions, please visit https://t.co/dQ6gUj445z.
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) October 13, 2019
It must have been a dramatic event for players...
Absolutely. Even though they knew something was coming, they didn't expect to be left with no game to play, and just a black hole teasing them with no idea of when they can get back online.
Many users praised the game makers for the suspense created and the dramatic finale.
However, the game has been surrounded by controversy for the past year due to its addictive nature as well as its violence.
"[Fortnite] shouldn't even be allowed," said Britain's Prince Harry at an event at London's YMCA earlier this year. "What is the benefit of having that game in your household, no matter what age you are? It's created as an addiction to keep you in front of a computer as long as possible."
Since the outage last night, gamers have subsequently been saying on social media how they don't know what to do with themselves.
What am I supposed to do now? @FortniteGame
— OzzieAlbies (@ozzie) October 13, 2019
Elon Musk has been tweeting on the event ...
Yes, there's a theory going around that the tech guru had something to do with the game's disappearance.
Almost a year ago he retweeted a fake news article saying he had bought Fortnite and deleted it for the benefit of the kids playing the game.
He retweeted that tweet last night accompanied by the words "haha".
