What the heck just occurred? As expected, the launch of a highly anticipated multiplayer game like Overwatch 2 was met with connection issues due to server congestion. However, Blizzard claims that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks were partially to blame for the launch issues that plagued the new game.
When Overwatch 2 was released, so many people had trouble logging in that it became an internet joke. According to Blizzard employees, the company is currently combating two separate DDoS attacks.
It was the first attack on Tuesday, according to Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who blamed dropped connections. A Blizzard representative, Aaron Keller, said on Wednesday that the company would be working through the night to address a second DDoS attack. They claim to be making progress toward restoring server stability but have not disclosed the extent of the attacks.
Some users have reported seeing tens of thousands of players ahead of them in server queues, on top of the more common reports of long wait times or server timeouts. Ex-Gears of War and Lawbreakers creator Cliff Bleszinski joked that the error message had become the subtitle for Overwatch 2. Blizzard is aware that some players have issues when they combine their PC and console accounts.
Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers. Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues. https://t.co/4GwrfHEiBE
— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) October 4, 2022
One of the oldest and simplest forms of cyberattack is the distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS), which occurs when a malicious network of bot systems takes down a target system by flooding its bandwidth. In order to conceal their true locations, attackers can use virtual private networks (VPNs) to send waves of infected computers and IoT devices at their targets.
One reason they happen so often is that it only takes hundreds of dollars to pay for a distributed denial of service attack to be launched by hackers on the dark web. The attacks are becoming more widespread and sophisticated as well as increasingly inexpensive. In June, Cloudflare mitigated a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that had made 212 million HTTPS requests from more than 1,500 networks in 121 countries using only 5,067 devices.
Attacks typically involve many more devices making many fewer requests. A record-breaking attack of 704.8 Mpps was fought by Akami just last month. On October 4, Overwatch 2 was released to the public, taking the place of the discontinued original. Battle passes are used to gain access to playable characters and other content in the game, with new seasons adding playable characters and maps.
The game's PvP component is free, but Blizzard is teasing the release of a premium PvE component for the game sometime in 2019.
End Lines
Blizzard employees said they're facing two DDoS strikes. Mike Ybarra, Blizzard's president, blamed failed connections on Tuesday's attack. Blizzard's Aaron Keller said the business would work through the night on a second DDoS.