If you've been having trouble playing Gears of War: E-Day for the past few hours, you're not alone. The Xbox console exclusive has been suffering mass server outages and disruptions, with the nefarious reason behind the problem now confirmed to be the fault of a DDoS attack on the game.
E-Day Targeted By DDoS Attack
Confirmation that E-Day is the latest game to be subjected to DDoS attacks comes from Gears studio, The Coalition. "Earlier today, some players experienced intermittent disconnects, login issues, or other service disruptions in Gears of War: E-Day. These issues were due to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting our online services," the studio revealed via its Gears Community Twitter account.
Although it didn't specifically mention the reason for the outages, the Xbox Support account also confirmed that there were problems with E-Day's servers. That same account has claimed that, as recently as 20 minutes ago at the time of this article's publication, the problem has now been resolved, and that those trying to play E-Day should be able to do so without issue.
Some users have claimed the entire Xbox platform was the target of the DDoS attack that knocked E-Day offline, claiming they were struggling to do anything that required an online connection. There has been no confirmation as to whether that was the case or not, with official channels specifically pointing to E-Day as the only affected party.
The Attack Rendered E-Day Almost Completely Unplayable
Just how limited access was to E-Day also shone a spotlight on a prevalent issue in video games right now. It wasn't just those who were trying to play online multiplayer who were affected by the E-Day outage, but everyone, including those who just wanted to play the campaign offline. Some have asked why that needs to be the case, but needing an unbroken internet connection to play single-player modes is now a common theme in modern gaming and has been for years.
As for what a DDoS attack is and why E-Day might have been targeted, the attacks are malicious attempts at disrupting a game, usually because the studio behind them has done something a certain section of its players don't agree with. An attempt to send a message. The recent reveal that E-Day is the latest example of an Xbox game to sell poorly because it's on Game Pass could be the reason for the attack, or it might be the same people who review-bombed the latest Gears game for being "woke" escalating how they're relaying their frustration.
The full story
This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.
