Blizzard got its first DDoS attack minutes after Overwatch 2 was released.
This October 4th was a day to mark with an iron for all fans of the franchise watch over. The second part of the multiplayer game, which replaced the first, opened its doors to the public in France at around 9pm on Tuesday. A long-awaited moment, especially after all the controversy and controversy that the game has aroused a few weeks before its release.
However, not everything went as planned. Don’t panic, Blizzard hasn’t stolen its players by offering them a half-finished title, as has been in fashion for a few years now. However, to the chagrin of the studio, they will have suffered some inconvenience. The latter faced a large-scale DDoS attack that compromised access Overwatch 2 up to a few thousand people.
Unfortunately, we are experiencing a massive DDoS attack on our servers. Teams work hard to mitigate / control. This causes a lot of drop / connect problems. https://t.co/4GwrfHEiBE
—Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) October 4, 2022
On Twitter, the studio responded immediately by recognizing problems with the server, without identifying the exact threat in the first few minutes. Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra later revealed that it was indeed a DDoS attack. Recall that this is a type of attack that consists in flooding the targeted network with unnecessary requests to saturate it. If the attack is massive, it can interrupt all server-related services.
You are not alone in the mess
In case of’Overwatch 2, this has manifested itself in several ways. Players initially encountered problems connecting to servers, causing a queue of up to 40,000 people. Those who were able to log in on the same night or later also experienced account transfer issues, affecting both the game’s aesthetic elements and playable characters. Recall that the players who have paid watch over the first name should have access to all the old characters from the beginning, which some do not. Same concern for the Heroes Gallery level running into some stubborn bugs.
While the DDoS attack may not be the whole story, let’s hope Blizzard finds an effective cure for it soon enough.Overwatch 2 enjoy a good launch. Game director Aaron Keller informed Twitter that the issues are still being resolved, but the overall situation seemed to have improved.
We are making steady progress on server issues and stability and are working on a second DDoS attack. We are all on deck and will be working all night. Thanks for your patience. We will share more information as it becomes available.
– Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) October 5, 2022