A bug impacting systems running both Windows and CrowdStrike security software is causing what one expert guessed could be "the largest IT outage in history," grounding flights and stopping trains globally with the portentous blue screen of death, unintentionally making a new Warframe demo feel poorly, or perhaps perfectly, timed.
"IT team trying to protect the Warframe TennoCon demo PCs from a global blue screen of death panic the day before we show our Y2K-themed demo is a little too on the nose, thanks," creative director Rebecca Ford wrote on X.
Y2K, you might recall, refers to the international hysteria resulting from a bug impacting some computers, making it impossible to format dates in the year 2000. I'll spoil it for you now that January 1, 2000 came and went without causing the apocalypse that stockpilers stowing kerosene and freeze-dried gravy were expecting. But many have noticed that this CrowdStrike issue is creating almost exactly the kind of havoc people anticipated 24 years ago.
But Warframe, Digital Extremes' free-to-play online role-playing game, couldn't have predicted that. Its Warframe 1999 expansion was announced back in 2023, when computers worldwide were gladly functioning. Now, CrowdStrike is urgently deploying a fix for the bug that's even disrupting hospital operations.
"We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption," CrowdStrike said in a July 19 statement.
1999's reveal trailer from TennoLive 2023 suggests that the expansion imagines a more dismal outcome to the last '90s New Year's Eve. Computer terminals flash blood-red before another scene shows a digital clock striking 12. It'll be unfortunate if a widespread bug delays Warframe 1999's demo debut, but hey, it'll also be immersive.
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