DDoS attacks were the source of Destiny 2's server troubles this week

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen imagery.
(Image credit: Bungie)

An increase in Destiny 2 error code encounters earlier this week was caused by DDoS attacks, says developer Bungie. The attacks caused some players to be unable to log in or stay connected, and got worse over September 18 and 19—by the evening of the 19th many couldn't play at all.

A DDoS attack uses a network of devices, usually commanded by malware, to overwhelm a server with phony requests, inhibiting its ability to serve actual users. Bungie says it doesn't usually openly acknowledge attacks like this "for general game security reasons," but the proximity to a hotfix and patch compelled it to speak out in this instance.

"While we typically don't confirm these types of attacks and do not plan to in the future for general game security reasons, we believe it's the right thing to do for our players to communicate the added pressure to our systems given recent circumstances," the studio said in a post.

It was otherwise a pretty funny weekend for Destiny 2 due to an unrelated issue. A huge weapon crafting glitch caused players to be able to make bizarre frankenguns and frankenswords combining aspects of one weapon with another: Grenade launchers with a shotgun-level of projectiles, double-swords that double-leaped you double-forward—that kind of thing. Bungie hastily deployed a patch to fix those.

Destiny 2 is otherwise proceeding as planned, hurtling towards its epic The Final Shape expansion, in which the now almost decade long saga of Light and Dark might just get some kind of conclusion.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Read more
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
Destiny 2: Season of Plunder promo image.
'We made one big mistake': Destiny 2 developer reveals how a small team dedicated to player retention led to a 20 hour server outage and character rollback
3D illustration of a grid of black cpus with different IoT symbols, representing a botnet concept
Cloudflare claims to have mitigated biggest DDoS attack on record with requests flying in from 5,500 IP addresses per second
Several adventurers in World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore server crying over the death of a fallen comrade.
Blizzard plans to revive WoW Classic Hardcore characters 'at our sole discretion', after DDOS attack puts major streamer guild OnlyFangs in the ground
A Guardian with a grenade launcher and a very fancy hat.
Destiny 2's new episode hits next week, sending players back into the giant, haunted spaceship where the first game had its finest moments
Destiny 2: Heresy
Destiny 2 is the latest game to feel the SAG-AFTRA strike as it warns Heresy will be missing an unknown chunk of voiced dialogue
Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event