‘Battlefield Hardline’ On Xbox One Struck By DDOS Attack At Launch
Battlefield Hardline on the Xbox One suffered from a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack Tuesday evening. While the attack didn’t bring the game or Xbox LIVE completely down, players did report problems connecting and staying connected while playing multiplayer in the just launched shooter.
Xbox One players began experiencing problems with Battlefield Hardline during North American prime time hours on Tuesday evening. Electronic Arts responded that they were aware of the issue.
We are aware of #BFHardline connectivity issues on Xbox One. We’ve got our best on it and hope to resolve soon. Thanks for your patience.
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) March 18, 2015
While this created shades of the troubled Battlefield 4 launch, it was not as bad. My personal experience with Battlefield Hardline last night was being dropped from three matches, one while I was on a roll in the Hotwire mode. I was able to quickly find a new game, however, and didn’t think much of the problems at the time. Electronic Arts and the developers at Visceral Games identified the problem as a DDoS attack. The Xbox One was the only of the five release platforms to be attacked though. The PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC all avoided the attack.
We’ve identified the connectivity issues on Xbox One are due to DDoS attack and working to resolve. Apologies for the inconvenience.
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) March 18, 2015
There has been no additional information about the DDoS attack on Battlefield Hardline since that tweet. Additionally, no group has taken responsibility. Xbox LIVE, the PlayStation Network, and other games and gaming services were all recipients of attacks in the latter half of 2014, most notably from a group calling itself The Lizard Squad. Some members of the group were eventually arrested for unrelated charges, but fending off attacks is a non-stop battle for game developers and publishers.
According to Battlefield Hardline Stats, the game reached a peak of just over 80k Xbox One owners on Tuesday evening. The PS4 version topped out at almost 63k, while the PC version managed only 9,425. Meanwhile, the dwindling lifespan of the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles was made apparent with only a max of 6,763 and 8,682 players respectively.
Expect those numbers to grow through the week as more console and PC owners purchase the game. We’ll have to keep an eye on how well Battlefield Hardline‘s servers hold up as the player population grows and more attacks are launched.
What was your experience with Battlefield Hardline at launch? Did you experience any issues? Sound off in the comments below.
[Images via Battlefield Hardline]
