Blizzard president blames ‘mass DDOS attack’ for keeping you from playing Overwatch 2

Blizzard president blames ‘mass DDOS attack’ for keeping you from playing Overwatch 2

Mercy in Overwatch 2. | Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2 launched today — in theory, at least. The game’s servers clicked on this afternoon, but for the last few hours, many people trying to check out its removed 5v5 team shooter action are seeing nothing but this screen.

Image: Richard Lawler

Overwatch 2 “server connection failed...retrying” error screen

At least some of the issues can likely be chalked up to a “mass DDoS attack” targeted at Blizzard’s servers. “Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage,” Blizzard president Mike Ybarra said on Twitter. “This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues.” Ybarra hasn’t shared an estimate for when the problems may be resolved.

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

Not everyone is locked out, as we’ve seen a bunch of Twitch streamers in matches. But if you’re having trouble getting into a game, this DDoS attack may be part of the reason why.

Blizzard is also tracking other known issues and bugs in a forum thread. Some players who have merged PC and console accounts may see an “Unexpected Server Error” message, while some cosmetics players have earned may not be appearing in their collections.