In Albion Online, the servers were temporarily offline over the weekend. The reason was a hacker attack, and the developers believe they know who the attacker is.
What kind of attack was it? The game servers of Albion Online were affected by a DDoS attack over the weekend. The MMORPG, developed by Sandbox Interactive GmbH from Germany, recorded an extremely high number of requests to their game servers, causing them to collapse under the load.
The reason for this was a so-called DDoS attack, where hackers target servers simultaneously with hundreds of thousands or even millions of devices by bombarding them with requests. The attack can usually be quickly mitigated by server operators.
The attack on the Albion Online servers lasted about a day. During this time, many players were unable to log into the MMORPG and repeatedly received error messages. However, the developers already have an idea of who might be behind it.
The timing is suspicious
Who might be behind the attacks? In an update on AlbionOnline.com, the developers provided ongoing updates about the server issues. There, a possible culprit is mentioned who may be behind the attacks. Community Manager “TinyHamsterHat” states: “Funny how these things always seem to happen around major RMT ban waves…”
The Community Manager reveals that they likely just conducted a new ban wave recently, which affected accounts involved in RMT. RMT stands for “Real-Money Trading”, which in Albion Online is likely primarily conducted by farm bots that farm resources, monsters, or dungeons and sell the items for real money.
The hackers behind the attacks may have been significantly affected by the new ban wave and may have suffered corresponding financial losses. The attack on the servers could represent an act of revenge, likely to retaliate against the ban wave. Whether the two events are indeed connected is unclear.
What do I need to know about Albion Online? The MMORPG from Germany has been around for 8 years and is currently probably more successful than ever before. In 2024, they broke the new player record and their all-time high. Something that many new MMORPGs fail to achieve after release.
Since its release in 2017, the MMORPG has steadily grown and has captivated more players with new content, and aims to continue doing so in the future. What makes the MMORPG successful and why it has succeeded where many others have failed, you can find out here: “Bigger, bolder, and more vibrant than ever before” – MMORPG from Germany achieves what the competition fails to do
