Battle.net is currently being hit with a DDoS attack

Update: Blizzard has tweeted that the DDoS attack is over. "The DDoS attacks from earlier have ended and players can now log into BattleNet. We are investigating reports of World Server Down in WoW," the company tweeted.

Original story:

Blizzard has confirmed that Battle.net is being hit by a DDoS attack, causing latency and connection issues in Overwatch and World of Warcraft, among other titles.

We continue to actively monitor an ongoing DDOS attack against network providers, affecting latency/connections to our games. #BlizzCSAugust 3, 2016

Although it's impossible to know for certain, a hacking group by the name of PoodleCorp has claimed responsibility for the attack. Neither the group, nor anyone else claiming responsibility, has given an explanation for the attack, though Blizzard did hand out a lot of Overwatch bans earlier this week.

Or else, it could deliberately coincide with the new "Summer Games" season, which introduced a special Lucioball game mode to the FPS. Whatever the case, we'll update as news comes to hand.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.