Overwatch 2 launch plagued with mass DDoS attack on its servers

The follow-up to Activision Blizzard’s 2016 smash hit hero shooter, Overwatch 2 went live yesterday as we reported in the hours leading up to its launch.

Unfortunately for fans, that launch is getting off to quite a rough start thanks to a mass DDoS (disrupted denial-of-service) attack on the game’s servers. This type of attack is typically a malicious effort to crash an online service by flooding it with synthetically-generated traffic.

President of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Ybarra put out a statement on social media assuring gamers that the team is “working hard to mitigate/manage” the widespread connection issues plaguing the servers.

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

As reported by Kotaku, the issues continue into the second day of the game’s launch, preventing players from logging in to the game. This isn’t the first time a Blizzard game has experienced a troubled launch: Diablo III’s infamous “Error 37” immediately come to mind.

Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play title. For the time being, however, you will be hard-pressed logging in to play the game. And that’s after enduring long queue times.