Hackers completely shut down Apex Legends‘ matchmaking in retaliation for hackers allegedly ruining Titanfall (2014). The matchmaking screen was completely useless for multiple hours. It only referred to the website ‘savetitanfall.com‘. That website apparently has nothing to do with the attackers of Apex Legends. As of writing, everything seems to be back to normal again.
Apex Legends hacked for Titanfall
The weird sequence of events apparently started months ago, when the original Titanfall became overrun by hackers. As PC Gamer details, the matchmaking of that game would frequently shut down for weeks on end as a result of hackers.
Players affected by the hack are unable to queue for any other game mode.
The website accuses EA of “fraud” for selling Titanfall while it’s “unplayable.”
(Clip via @YungLucianOG) pic.twitter.com/4MqZi2UBh9
— Apex Legends News (@alphaINTEL) July 4, 2021
Other computer warriors subsequently shut down all of Apex Legends, stating ‘TF1 is being attacked so is Apex’ in a pop-up message. According to the “good-guy” hackers, nefarious hackers plague Titanfall and the game is therefore unplayable. They argue Electronic Arts shouldn’t sell the game in this state.
Fixed in hours
Shortly after the massive attack, Respawn Entertainment got to work on a fix. After a few hours, the game received an update that fixed the hacker problem. Matchmaking subsequently returned to Apex Legends.
We’ve confirmed that matchmaking has been restored. We’re keeping an eye on things but believe the issue to be resolved.
Thanks for your patience, Legends.
— Respawn (@Respawn) July 5, 2021
Still, remarkably Titanfall doesn’t seem to be popular at all. Titanfall 2 recently broke it’s Steam record of most concurrent players (well over 27k players). Titanfall (2014) saw a peak concurrent player base of just 246 players on Steam (via SteamCharts).
Of course, many players could be playing through Origin, giving us a faulty representation of the popularity of the game. The recent review-bombing on Steam also probably affected the games’ poor performance on Steam.
This isn’t the first time Apex Legends has been hacked, but it was the first time hackers did it with (arguably) good intentions. They just wanted Titanfall to be fixed. Mission accomplished!