H1Z1 suffering from Early Access login issues, game error ‘G99’

H1Z1's Early Access launched earlier today, and as some of you may have predicted, it's experiencing some hiccups. Perhaps it's the stress of being a top-selling game on Steam, but a number of users (ourselves included) are experiencing issues when attempting to log in to the game, particularly game error "G99" which reads:

There is an issue connecting to the login server. The login server may be down for maintenance. Please try again a little later. Be sure to check the forums for announcements on planned server shutdowns and estimated downtimes. If there has been no notification of a server shutdown, validate your game files from the LaunchPad and make sure that H1Z1.exe, awesomiumprocess.exe and launchpad.exe are all set as exceptions in your firewall/antivirus program(s). The login server may still be shut down without notification, but running through these steps will ensure that the problem is not on your end.

SOE president John Smedley has acknowledged the issue, confirming it's a problem caused by "massive server overload," but did say say that people are logging in successfully. For those encountering errors, Smedley assures the problem is being worked on.

Is it frustrating? Absolutely it is, especially for people who ponied up $20 or maybe even $40 to get into the Early Access. But, Sony Online Entertainment did warn us about this.

Even before H1Z1's launch, SOE warned that Early Access isn't for everybody. There will be glitches, bugs, errors, crashes, and yes, even log in problems. Remember, this is an unfinished product. It's still in development as I type this.

"Early Access is designed for those wishing to support the ongoing development of H1Z1 and be a part of shaping its future. Early Access allows us to develop H1Z1 side-by-side with the players and build lasting relationships with our community."

"… Players should anticipate an evolving feature set, bugs, incomplete content, missing features, occasional server downtime, and potentially game breaking issues."

So for those of you complaining, just remember that you signed up for this.