Twitter was experiencing some technical issues a few hours ago, and unfortunately for many people that were excited about today's Nintendo Direct, that meant they could not actively tweet their reactions to the livestream.
Our sister site Downdetector notes the issues were reported starting at about 4:29 pm ET. As the event was about to start, many reported issues they were having with sending tweets on the social media app, including on the web browser version, mobile app, and event TweetDeck, with an error noting that the user exceeded "the daily limit for sending Tweets." Though some reported they could bypass the issue by scheduling tweets a minute ahead.
In any case, the Nintendo Direct was streaming as the technical issues were ongoing. And fans looking forward to the event were livid that they could not share reactions on Twitter as the stream went on. With announcements such as a new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games coming to Switch Online, and a remaster for the original Metroid Prime highlighting the event, you could probably imagine how angry Nintendo fans were.
Twitter won't let me tweeeeeeeettt but I wanted to talk about the #NintendoDirect :( pic.twitter.com/mxqRTJKRZr
— 女 | Curiousjoi 🎮 (@curiousjoi) February 8, 2023
there is no point in twitter's continued existence if it can't be used during a nintendo direct
— danny 🔜 ECCC N-05 (@Danny8bit) February 8, 2023
Twitter breaking just in time for a massive Nintendo Direct is a good reminder that we sure could use a viable alternative before this place just becomes completely busted
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 8, 2023
WTF pic.twitter.com/C738pZKRc0
— Andy Robinson (@AndyPlaytonic) February 8, 2023
Of course, not everyone was angry, upset, and/or confused about the situation. Some took the opportunity to crack some jokes.
twitter the second the nintendo direct started: pic.twitter.com/kIQklbzLnN
— fitz 🦋 PLAY GHOST TRICK (@fullbrave) February 8, 2023
Nintendo Direct: *Begins*
— TRAFON(s Backup Account) (@RiseFallNickBck) February 8, 2023
Twitter: pic.twitter.com/8Pdbb3PWqx
— Stein (@steinekin) February 8, 2023
The technical issues were certainly a concern for CEO Elon Musk. In a new report by Fortune, the outlet writes that Elon Musk emailed staff after the outage noting that the employees need to pause on developing new features "in favor of maximizing system stability and robustness." That's unsurprising given what is going on this weekend from the next episode of The Last of Us airing two days early to Super Bowl LVII airing on Sunday.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.