Blizzard says "mass DDoS" attack stopped users from playing Overwatch 2

techradar.com:

Overwatch 2, the recently-launched highly-anticipated sequel to Blizzard’s team shooter game, started its journey with — a major distributed denial of service (DDoS(opens in new tab)) attack. 

According to multiple media reports, many Overwatch 2 players wanting to give it a shot were met with a message saying “Game server connection failed...retrying”.

While it was first thought the server issues were related to an outpouring of interest from the community, the truth was later confirmed by Blizzard to be somewhat more sinister.

In an update to fans on Twitter, Blizzard’s president Mike Ybarra first said: “Teams are working hard on server issues with Overwatch 2. We are humbled by the excitement of players and will continue to focus on issues and get players into the fun! Thanks for your patience.” 

However, an hour later, Ybarra confirmed that server issues were, in fact, the result of a cyberattack: “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(opens in new tab) issues.”

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The latest update came from Overwatch 2 game director, Aaron Keller. “We’re steadily making progress on server issues and stability, as well as working through a second DDoS attack,” he tweeted. “We’re all hands on deck and will continue to work throughout the night. Thank you for your patience — we’ll share more info as it becomes available.”

While the DDoS attack seems to be causing quite the disruption, not everyone is affected. As reported by The Verge, there are many streamers