- Blizzard recently experienced a massive DDoS attack
- Players reported not being able to join games like Overwatch and Hearthstone
- This is the second such attack in under a month
Players are frustrated as they cannot access multiple games on their Battle.net client, including Hearthstone and Overwatch, because of a DDoS attack.
Battle.net Under DDoS Attack
Blizzard’s Battle.net experienced mass outages due to a confirmed distributed denial-of-service attack, a.k.a. a DDoS attack. As a result, players gave been complaining of not being able to play many Blizzard titles, including Overwatch and Hearthstone.
Problems started occurring in late December 14 and players started posting about them on social media and forums. Shortly after that a tech support poster on the Overwatch forums, which are run by Blizzard, confirmed there is an issue with the servers. At the time the problem seemed to be limited only to Overwatch, however, the issues spread to other Blizzard titles, including Hearthstone.
The post says players should avoid competitive play. The problem is that players can enter a match but be disconnected midgame due to the nature of the attack. This would mean they will be punished for leaving as if they disconnected on purpose. “Penalties cannot be reversed from disconnections even if they are due to server issues like what we are experiencing here.”
Users started reporting that they have trouble logging in or staying in World of Warcraft as well. However, shortly after that, the tech support poster said that they started receiving fewer and fewer reports, so they speculated that the worst of the attack is over.
A Second Massive DDoS Attack in Less than a Month
This is not the first time Blizzard has been under a distributed denial-of-service attack. In fact, the last one occurred at the end of last month. The Battle.net launcher was again the main focus of the attack, and players were again not able to connect to games or were quickly disconnected if they managed to get into a match.
There were some speculations that this was a targeted attack made in response to Activision Blizzard's many controversies the company went through this year. Those range from sexual harassment scandals and toxic workplace culture, to allegations that the CEO of the company Bobby Kotick knew and covered up some of the crimes. Players are frustrated as they cannot access multiple games on their Battle.net client, including Hearthstone and Overwatch, because of a DDoS attack.
It is not clear if the most recent DDoS attack was intended as revenge or not. Earlier on December 15, the warning messages on the Battle.net launcher were taken down, so it is presumed the attack has ended.
