The pain keeps pouring in for Activision Blizzard, with the developer hit with a late-night distributed denial of service or DDoS attack, disrupting gamers trying to log into Battle.net to play Overwatch, Hearthstone and World Of Warcraft.
The affected gamers were unable to find matches or connect with friends on the hit titles.
The attack saw increased latency and connections in Overwatch. It was reported around 10.15pm in the US, as players were getting disconnected from competitive matches and getting hit with leaver penalties.
Blizzard officially declared a DDoS attack around 11pm. It lasted until around 3am.
Players were randomly disconnected from matches, queue times were extended and there were issues logging on to Battle.net.
Blizzard finally put a maintenance alert statement on Battle.net after World Of Warcraft and Hearthstone gamers began reporting issues, saying, “We are actively working to mitigate this issue.”
The Blizzard Gear store and support site were also affected.
Blizzard were previously hit by a DDoS attack on World Of Warcraft Classic in 2019, with the perpetrator arrested soon after. DDoS attacks are considered federal crimes in both the US and Europe.
Battle.net was affected by another DDoS attack on November 24, with players prevented from logging in and accessing features.
This is just the latest headache for Activision Blizzard, who have seen their share prices plummet, calls for their CEO to resign over claims he was aware of employee sexual misconduct, reports Xbox are evaluating their relationship, and staff walkout after others were sacked.
