Posted on April 17, 2023 at 9:09 AM
World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games inaccessible after a DDoS attack
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have been on the rise over the past few years. The gaming industry has not been spared from these attacks. Players could not access World of Warcraft and other libraries of games by Blizzard Games. However, the company has since said it averted the attack and was back online.
Blizzard Games suffers DDoS attack
Some of the most popular games in the modern world depend on one client, which usually seems like a great idea. However, this strategy can present a major flaw, as one of the top names on Blizzard suffered a major hit because of server issues. The issues were triggered by a DDoS campaign.
The titles affected by this campaign include Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. The three titles suffered server problems because of DDoS attacks targeting Blizzard servers. The attack resulted in the fan bases for these games complaining over the lack of access.
Some players have complained about being signed out of their games despite having logged in on the platform. Blizzard has acknowledged this attack, saying it resulted in high latency and disconnections for some players. The company said it was working to mitigate this issue and restore normalcy.
The issue started on April 16, with the servers across Battle.net’s game suite starting to obtain issues reports. Players took to social media to complain about the issues that they were experiencing, such as waiting in queues for long without signs of getting in. Hundreds of players took to social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter to question whether the DDoS campaign will end and when they will access these games again.
Blizzard issued a follow-up statement shortly after the complaints that the DDoS attack had been mitigated. The company also urged players unable to log in to their sessions to consider troubleshooting.
Blizzard has suffered multiple DDoS attacks in the past
As aforementioned, DDoS attacks have increased recently, and Blizzard has been the latest victim. However, this is not the first time Blizzard has dealt with similar issues across the Battle.net suite. Despite the company suffering similar issues in the past, it appears it is yet to adopt proactive measures to ensure players remain online despite threats from hackers.
Blizzard suffered a major DDoS attack last year shortly after the launch of Overwatch 2. Shortly after the game servers went live, people who tried to access the game and view it could not do so, as nothing appeared on their screens.
The issue was attributed to a “mass DDoS attack” that targeted Blizzard’s servers. At the time, the president of Blizzard, Mike Ybarra, said that the teams were working on managing and mitigating an issue that had caused a drop and connection issue.
Another DDoS attack also happened early last month. The attack also happened in the Blizzard Battle.net service. The latter is a service launched in 1996, shortly before the release of the original Diablo title. The Battle.net service is a one-stop shop that targets gamers who want to explore and play the developer’s library of games.
The Battle.net servers host the developer’s games on both PC and consoles. Most Blizzard titles such as Overwatch 2, mandate that players possess a Battle.net account when playing on different platforms, including consoles. However, the same is not required for games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
There have been benefits and risks to consolidating Blizzard’s online services under Battle.net. The feature makes it easier for players to connect with friends online by having all games in one place. However, with all the games running on a single backend, it creates a problem for players when the platform fails to work as expected, like in the recent case.
The outages and disruptions at Battle.net are not uncommon occurrences because players can often find themselves frustrated and unable to sign into their favorite games. Given the damage that a single DDoS attack can cause on the platform, fending off the campaigns should be a priority for Blizzard.
However, DDoS campaigns and outages are not the only issues facing the game developer. The US Department of Justice recently filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, which could significantly affect the company.
