Gears of War: E-Day suffered a DDoS attack over the weekend, developer The Coalition has said.
Players suffered intermittent disconnects and login issues while trying to play the Xbox Series X and S and PC action game, which The Coalition eventually got on top of. It has now confirmed the problems were the result of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeting online services.
“Our teams are continuing to monitor and mitigate this activity. We’ll provide updates if there are any significant changes,” The Coalition said. “Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
There is a great deal of speculation online about the motivation behind hitting Gears with a DDoS attack, with some pointing to a continued online vendetta against the game for apparently being “woke.” E-Day has a “mostly positive” user review rating on Steam. Whatever the reason (there may be no overarching reason behind the DDoS attack at all), E-Day is now up and running.
Last week, Alinea Analytics’ head of marketing analysis, Rhys Elliott, reported that E-Day had sold an estimated 230,000 copies in its first week in what was described as a soft start. These unofficial figures, which are not backed by data provided by Microsoft, pointed to Xbox subscription service Game Pass as cannibalizing sales.
Earlier this month, the boss of The Coalition responded to reports that staff at the studio were worried they might lose their jobs amid the ongoing cuts at Xbox, promising the next Gears game wouldn’t take as long to make.
Eurogamer had reported on internal concern that layoffs would hit The Coalition after the release of E-Day. “The mood is certainly ‘let’s not celebrate the game until we’re three months post launch, just in case,’ which is very unusual,” one source told the site. “We’re just expecting the next wave [of layoffs], or being reorganized under Activision or something later this year,” claimed another.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s “reset” of Microsoft’s gaming business has seen nearly 2,000 people cut already this financial year, with more to come. A number of studios have left the business or are in the process of closing down. Microsoft has also reorganized its studios, bringing Halo and Sea of Thieves developer Rare under Call of Duty developer Activision, and Grounded developer Obsidian under Fallout developer Bethesda.
Of course, Gears of War: E-Day was selected to be an Xbox Series X and S and PC game, ditching any release for a sales-boosting PS5 version. The Coalition studio head Mike Crump recently told the BBC that success for E-Day goes behind sales, saying: “We measure things like, are we showcasing the platform? Are we pushing the hardware to its limits? Are we showcasing what the Xbox is capable of? …Our goal basically is to be the best-looking game on the Xbox and really show the industry what’s possible with our hardware.”