The Division servers down: New Tom Clancy online-only game issues stop people from playing

Users are seeing a range of error codes, all from the NATO phonetic alphabet — leading to an outpouring of hate for ‘Romeo’ and ‘Mike’

Unexpectedly high demand has resulted in the beta being extended (Ubisoft)

The Division has just been released — but many people can’t play it.

The game, one of the biggest of the year, has just been released and is being hit by huge server problems, meaning that many people can’t get online. And since the game is online only, the issues are leading people not to be able to play at all.

Developers ran two beta tests of the game in advance, and prolonged them on the strong demand. That had led many to hope that the company would have sufficiently tested the servers, and they would be ready to bear the load of the game’s release.

But many people are being hit by problems and just see errors when they attempt to access the game.

Ubisoft claimed on its own forums that “All services have resumed normal operation on all platforms”. It said that it was “monitoring the situation”.

But social media is full of people still reporting problems with the servers.

The problems are so common that they are even generating their own memes. When the game encounters an issue with the server, it brings up an error code named after the NATO phonetic alphabet — leading many people to blame “Mike” for the problems.