Overwatch 2 suffers multiple DDoS attacks on launch day

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? Connection problems due to server congestion are nothing new when a highly-anticipated multiplayer title launches, which happened with Overwatch 2 this week. However, Blizzard blames some of the new game's initial woes on DDoS attacks, which remain a growing threat.

Enough players had problems trying to log onto Overwatch 2 for the game's launch that it became a meme. Employees at Blizzard say the company is fighting at least two DDoS attacks flooding their servers.

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra pinned dropped connections on the first attack on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Blizzard's Aaron Keller said the company would work through the night to deal with a second DDoS incident. They haven't provided information on the severity of the attacks but said they are making progress toward restoring server stability.

Aside from the usual reports of long wait times or server timeouts, some users reported seeing tens of thousands of players ahead of them in server queues. Former Gears of War and Lawbreakers developer Cliff Bleszinski joked that the server error message had become Overwatch 2's official subtitle. Blizzard is also aware of problems occurring when some players merge 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

Distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) – when a malicious network of bot systems takes down a target system by flooding its bandwidth – are one of the oldest and most straightforward forms of cyberattack, but are nonetheless difficult to prevent. Attackers can send massive numbers of virtual systems or infected Internet-of-Things devices to hit their targets while clouding their origin points using VPNs. They are frequent partially because ordering a DDoS attack from hackers on the dark web can cost mere hundreds of dollars.

The attacks are not only cheap but also growing in size and getting smarter. In June, Cloudflare stopped a DDoS attack that managed to make 212 million HTTPS requests from over 1,500 networks in 121 countries using only 5,067 devices. Typical attacks use many more devices totaling up to far fewer requests. Last month, Akami fought an attack that reached a record 704.8 Mpps.

Overwatch 2 became available to the public on October 4, replacing the original Overwatch, which is no longer available. The game uses battle passes to unlock characters and other content, with successive seasons introducing new characters and maps over time. The game's PvP is free-to-play, while Blizzard plans to unveil a paid PvE mode next year.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96221-overwatch-2-suffers-multiple-ddos-attacks-launch-day.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I figured their racist policy of requiring a post paid phone plan to play the game, locking out most in minority nations, and this retroactively applies to those who bought the first game, would be a bigger news story.

 

[psycros]

I figured their racist policy of requiring a post paid phone plan to play the game, locking out most in minority nations, and this retroactively applies to those who bought the first game, would be a bigger news story.

WTF is a "minority nation"?

 

[waclark]

I figured their racist policy of requiring a post paid phone plan to play the game, locking out most in minority nations, and this retroactively applies to those who bought the first game, would be a bigger news story.

Post paid phone plan? Uh, wut? I don't have a post paid phone plan and am able to play, queueing aside.

 

[m4a4]

I figured their racist policy of requiring a post paid phone plan to play the game, locking out most in minority nations, and this retroactively applies to those who bought the first game, would be a bigger news story.

LOL all you're doing is helping to water down the term "racist". The policy wasn't put in place to punish any particular race. Next thing you know, you're gonna say requiring internet to play the game is racist too

Anyways, beyond those mental gymnastics, requiring a "proper" phone plan certainly does seem like a very heavy handed way of trying to manage cheaters and keeping banned players from playing. I've heard even prepaid plans are not allowed...

 

[Nobina]

They DDoSed themselves to get some eyes going. Nobody really cares about Overwatch 1.2.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Post paid phone plan? Uh, wut? I don't have a post paid phone plan and am able to play, queueing aside.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...umber-requirement-is-rejecting-pre-paid-plans
https://www.ign.com/articles/overwatch-2-phone-sms-protect-scrapped

They require SMS authentication through postpaid phone plans. They will be dropping the requirement for existing players, but new players will still need to abide by said rules.

WTF is a "minority nation"?

A nation not inhabited by a majority rich white population, AKA most nations. Outside of the US/west Europe pre paid phone plans make up the vast majority of phone users.

LOL all you're doing is helping to water down the term "racist". The policy wasn't put in place to punish any particular race. Next thing you know, you're gonna say requiring internet to play the game is racist too

If saying 2+2=4 is racist and PB+J sandwiches and milk are racist then requiring expensive internet plans invented by rich white americans and western style phone plans is just as racist.

Anyways, beyond those mental gymnastics, requiring a "proper" phone plan certainly does seem like a very heavy handed way of trying to manage cheaters and keeping banned players from playing. I've heard even prepaid plans are not allowed...

They're not allowed, and it is absolutely an overreaction by blizzard to combat "toxicity" that it seems to find absolutely everywhere. Apparently the "mute" button just doesnt work for Blizzard.

 

[Hexic]

I figured their racist policy of requiring a post paid phone plan to play the game, locking out most in minority nations, and this retroactively applies to those who bought the first game, would be a bigger news story.

The intent was neither subtly or overtly racist. This was clearly put into effect to prevent bots/smurfs, and using burner numbers (and some pre-paid services) are too easy and fast to get; hence the ban.

As far as 'minority nations' - that term is oxymoronic due to the fact that the term 'minority' is relative to the area, not compared to the US/EU because we're... white? In some African nations/metro areas, white individuals may be the minority there - so introducing race into this is irrelevant to the topic at hand.

 

[waclark]

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...umber-requirement-is-rejecting-pre-paid-plans
https://www.ign.com/articles/overwatch-2-phone-sms-protect-scrapped

They require SMS authentication through postpaid phone plans. They will be dropping the requirement for existing players, but new players will still need to abide by said rules.

My bad, I had not seen that requirement. From reading up on it, it appears that some pre-paid plans are working, though no one seems to know why.

 

[ThrakazogZ]

Is there really a criminal organization out there that spends time and resources, to ruin every live service game's release the past few years, with DDoS attacks.....of do companies just not spend the money on infrastructure, knowing after the initial few weeks of release the player count drops off sharply.

 

[CrisisDog]

I tried logging in a few times, but the shortest queue wait I had was 3,000 ahead of me. Not sure who asked for this update, but it has not been smooth....

 

[waclark]

I tried logging in a few times, but the shortest queue wait I had was 3,000 ahead of me. Not sure who asked for this update, but it has not been smooth....

I logged in this morning, Queue of about 200, got in fairly quickly.