Splatoon 2 has been subject to much more than its fair share of hacking issues since its release on Switch around a year and a half ago, and the problem doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.
As reported by OatmealDome, a data miner well-known within the Splatoon community, some players are entering League Battles and manually forcing their opponents to disconnect from the game to win matches and reach Rank 1 on the leaderboard.
It is believed that hackers are achieving this by performing denial-of-service attacks on other players, directly attacking their internet connection linked to the game and forcing a disconnect. If you get disconnected from a game, you'll automatically forfeit that match to your opponent, giving hackers an easy way to beat others to the top.
This follows a series of hacking problems faced by players last year, in which culprits forced unreleased content onto other players amongst other things. One user actually hacked the in-game leaderboards to send Nintendo a message, expressing their concerns about the game's vulnerability.
As always, if you fall victim to any hacking attempts in the game, we'd urge you to report offending users via the SplatNet 2 app on mobile.
Here's hoping Nintendo puts a stop to this as soon as possible.
[source twitter.com, via nintendosoup.com]
Comments 71
Jeez what a joke.
Truly the worst of people. It is a shame that the other part of the community, those who are playing to enjoy themselves or those playing competitively via legit means, have to put up with this.
Man, that’s just dirty. Can’t people just play fair?
There’s always those few intent on ruining things for the many
Yikes! Nintendo needs to figure this out. ASAP.
Is there a way to tell who exactly is hacking though...? I mean, unless they have obviously hacked names that includes symbols normally not available or when they use unreleased gear or are flying through the air before you get forcefully booted, I don't think there's a way to tell and you might end up reporting an innocent person.
Either way, these kinds of people are just asking for a swift kick to their stones. We don't need these kinds of people to reproduce.
As always when it comes to Nintendo online service, there's a very simple solution.
time to quit playing til this is sorted.
see y'all in Smash Ultimate.
I don't get why people do stuff like this. Seems like a lot of wasted time and effort for the sole purpose of making others miserable.
This has happened to me all the time, and not just in League Battles. Happens during Splatfests too.
NiNtEndO dOEsN't NeEd dEdIcAtEd SeRvERs.
Soon they will find a way to corrupt people’s saves and they’ll be gone forever because nobody is willing to make a fuss about Nintendo allowing games to block cloud saves.
@TheDragonDAFan - Humorous, but really you act like this would have happened if they did (better connection for some... some), which is not the case. World of Warcraft PvP has had YEARS of this when I still played.
@CharlieSmile - Knowing this happened in Splatoon, steel yourself in expecting someone to be replicating this in Smash.
@BenAV - It's an ego thing. Most I have seen in real life aren't happy with their life they vicariously live through their talents in gaming. Some of that pride gets obsessive when their talent is tested and humbled, and many of them turn towards altering and handicapping others to continue to live in the self delusion.
@TheDragonDAFan You do realize dedicated servers wouldn't fix this, right? A DoS attack occurs outside of the game entirely, on your opponents internet connection. As long as they can find your IP, they can try and do it.
I remember people here saying we are now paying for online to get "better online experience", "better servers" and "to get rid of the hackers"
Now here we are, still where we started.
@link3710 dedicated servers would solve this. They can't attack another person if they can't find them. They find them because they have a direct link to the other person.
Welp guess I'll keep playing smash
@TheDragonDAFan ....you are aware that DDoS can work on anything. right?
BF4 suffered DDoS attacks. BF1 suffered a crap ton of DDoS attacks.
Ubisoft servers was hit by DDoS. etc.
You really should look stuff up before saying such things.
edit: @Therad you too.
reason why nintendo didnt add splatoon to cloud saves cause of this bs.
@Yorumi dude nintendo has been cracking down on those cheaters but you do realize theres a limit on how much they can do right now.
Pathetic. People want to win so badly they don’t care how they achieve it.
I’ve encountered hacking issues in the original Splatoon, but never Splatoon 2. Probably because The vast majority of people still playing on Wii U 2 years ago were hackers, whereas it’s a very small percentage out of the 35 million Switch owners. So the odds play in our favor. I may have played with a hacker in simply not known it though. That’s definitely possible.
Nintendo needs to setup dedicated servers, no more p to p.
@Yorumi hacking exists in games with dedicated servers =_=
Battlefield. Siege. Overwatch. Sea of thieves. Gears of war 4. Fortnite. many others that I won't fill in this box.
you get the idea though. dedicated servers is not the end all fix. They also have anti cheat.
Nothing is 100% secure. Nothing.
This is unfortunately not new. This was happening in Splatoon 1 as well.
Nintendo's online service is a total joke,I regret ever paying for it because of these dumb mishaps,mistakes they are letting happen.No I will be careful when I play Super smash bros ultimate don't want no cheater,hacker lowlife to mess up my game,will report them Asap if I find one so they can receive a nice little Bann and learn not to cheat ever and probably has robe a miserable person that doesn't know how to lose to even hack,cheat.Those awful people need to Learn how to lose in any online games for real.
To be fair, this is my favourite way to win a match
It's good that I'm paying for an online subscription service as Nintendo is undoubtedly using those resources to stamp out cheaters and ensure a seamless multiplayer experience. /s
@Yorumi you're misunderstanding how cheating works on these games at all.
The cheating is done at the client level, not the server level. A server only shows whats happening in the current gamestate, not governing the end all things.
edit: cheating can come in many forms. this one ends up being over a network with DDoS, but basically any cheat is done at the client side level. Wallhack, Aimbot, etc.
They are real hacks because they hook in and alter the code.
edit 2: ah, actually what comes to mind is a perfect example. The client can tell the server to ignore geometry for bullet collision so you can just shoot through anything and the other players just drop.
@Yorumi That's not what @Varelius is saying. I agree with Varelius. Even dedicated servers can be hacked.
Some people just never learn, do they?
Simple solution. Monitor game results, and look for any players who win a higher than normal % of games by disconnect.
Start by awarding a smaller win bonus, then none.
And if the data shows a massive spike... Well, bring on the ban hammer.
It's not that hard.
Nintendo can also use their servers to ping users - and see if a connection goes from normal to unreachable towards the end of a match.
Add this to some analysis, plus some time penalties... And you'll catch the cheaters soon enough.
Just a reminder that Nintendo wants you to pay $20 annually to do nothing to fix problems like this.
Honestly what's the point? Nonsense like this is why I rarely bother playing games online.
@shoeses Um.. They are working to stop the cheaters, but they have a limit on how much they can do right now. So your claim of them doing nothing to fix this is false. Nintendo are doing everything they can to remedy the situation.
One small silver lining of the Splat 2 app. The ability to report players for stupid stunts like this.
@Therad As someone who's played League for close to a decade now, dedicated servers definitely don't prevent DDoS attacks, believe me.
I love winning
Sounds like a fun way to play.
People that hack like that just prove they're outright pathetic and can't even try to play.
If it turns out Nintendo is in fact cooking up a way to target and ban cheaters, I would happily throw money at their online service.
@BensonUii
I believe that.
People take pride in the fact they hacked their console as if they wrote the code themselves. Which they didn’t. The actual genius wrote the code. They just executed it like any other program. Doesn’t take a genius to follow a tutorial to hack. Anyone can do it if they set their mind to follow through with it.
@CharlieSmile this isn't specific to Splatoon, they're just using a client that can perform DoS attacks. You just need their IP address for that, something that can be easily done in a peer to peer connection.
Splatoon is such a chill game.. do people care about winning that much? I have fun playing whether I win or lose, unless someone has been disconnected. That definitely ruins the experience..
@Alantor28 It should not take a year and a half to combat this.
@PipeGuy64Bit Um... delicate servers can be hacked too, ya know? Nothing is 100% secured. Even delicate servers.
I love winning as much as the next person, but really? I'd feel guilty if I knew I'd won a match by cheating instead of giving it my all. Why kill the enjoyment of several just to "be the best"? Is your life really that empty, or do you just enjoy trolling others who just want to have fun and...I don't know...enjoy the game as it was intended?
I hate online gaming because of this. Any game that has its focus on online gaming I avoid.
@Yorumi I don't think that's true. Dedicated servers are not 100% secured. They can be hacked like any other server.
Edit: And why are you so keen on trying to prove that Nintendo is cheating people out of their money and think that the Splatoon 2 hacks are because of the p2p service? Even if what you say is true, they need to be proven first, but so far, they aren't being proven.
And did you even listen to what @Varelious said? I had to agree with him that you don't understand how cheating works. And dedicated servers are not the permanent hacker proof solution. Hackers aren't that stupid. They can even hack into dedicated servers. So even if Nintendo does put in dedicated servers, they can still be hacked.
@Yorumi ...I think you're beyond reasoning, man. Again, dedicated servers can be hacked.
And before you pull one of your conspiracy theories that Nintendo are stealing people's money and not doing anything to remedy the problem, they are remedying the problem, but they are limited to what they can do right now. So Nintendo are not a bunch of liars as you claimed them to be. They are working on the problem, but right now, they are limited to what they can do.
And again, dedicated servers can be hacked, so even if you claimed dedicated servers are way more secured, hackers can find a way to hack into them. And like someone said, nothing is 100% secured, including dedicated servers.
@Yorumi What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about the Splatoon 2 servers, not the eShop servers.
Again, before you pull one of your conspiracy theories bc about how Nintendo is a greedy and anti-consumer company that doesn't care about their fans, didn't you hear one of the users saying Nintendo are cracking down on the hackers? They are working to remedy the situation.
Nintendo isn't as you claimed them to be. They are not the dishonest company you claimed them to be. You didn't even bother to read some of @Varelius's comments about dedicated servers also capable of getting hacked. The reason I agree with @Varelius is because he does know how things like this happen. And like he said, you're clearly misunderstanding how cheating happens in games like this.
So if you are a computer engineer as you claimed to be, @Varelius's comments about this are spot on and I think he knows a lot about computer engineering and how servers (both normal and dedicated) can be easily be hacked by hackers who can hack them with ease because our technology is evolving and hackers will use them to do whatever Lord knows what.
@Danrenfroe2016 Yeah, that's not gonna happen. dedicated servers can be hacked. Hackers will always find a way to bypass security even if it's a dedicated server.
@Yorumi i'm not going to butt in on the whole conversation going on there but I do want to correct one thing.
You mentioned people just taking a game from the eshop correct?
Well...that has and continues to happen on the Wii U. I didn't particularly look at the specifics on how to do it, but it does happen and the server couldn't tell the difference.
edit: I also want to clarify that the server itself wasn't touched in any way but its easier than you think to just "take it."
@Yorumi I personally keep away from anything regarding this. If memory serves, you use a program on the PC to download it direct from the eshop an then just slap it on a modded Wii U.
@Yorumi I believe Varelius's words. And Nintendo is not that dumb. Like one user said, they are cracking down on the Splatoon 2 hackers. If they said they are cracking down on the hackers, then they are true to their word.
You claimed they are lying about it, but they are doing everything they can to make the servers better.
Remember when people played video games to have fun, and cheating in a match led to your friend slugging you in the shoulder and telling you to leave his house and never ask to play with him again? Good times.
@Varelius True. As for me, I am stop my coversation with @Yorumi because it's getting us nowhere.
@Alantor28 To be fair, in quite a few cases he isn't wrong. S2 is P2P, and in order to play P2P games you have to establish a direct connection. If anyone is sniffing connections or monitoring what connects to through their modem and/or router then they can easily see the IPs of the other players and then send a flood of packets (DDoS) at the specified IPs.
What hes referring to by server protection from DDoS is that you're just establishing a connection to the server itself so the only IP you would see is the Server's IP.
But that just means they now have the Server's IP and can (and I stress the word attempt on this) attempt to DDoS the server.
Companies have tech engineers which combat these forms of attacks but sometimes it just gets through. Hence what I was trying to say.
but there you have it, a simpler way of what was going on.
@Varelius I see. You're quite knowledgeable on this sort of thing.
@Yorumi Whatever, man. You believe what you want to believe.
Also, if dedicated servers are the so called solution to the hacking problem, do you know how much they cost? They cost like $100,000 dollars a year for 10,000 players. That's breaking the bank. So in my opinion, dedicated servers are not worth the effort or money for online gaming.
@Yorumi Oh, one last thing. He isn't denying that hacks exist, but hes trying to prove a point by saying the hacks aren't being run on the server itself. Which is true.
Hes also saying that an actual "hack" is not the same as what cheaters use to get an edge over players, also true but hes using literal terminology rather than just people just throwing the word around.
For better or worse, calling it a hack is wrong but it certainly classifies them as a cheater, and in some extreme cases does alter code to get desired effects which give an advantage.
Either way, its the same result no matter how you say it. They cheated, an thats the point that mainly matters.
@Alantor28 To be fair, I didn't say that was a server hack. The fact it is there and possible is a major issue regardless but like you said, not so much as a breach of server level security but certainly an issue the company doesn't need.
@Varelius Thanks man.
This is utterly unacceptable indeed! Nintendo ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO crack down on this right away! Anyone caught doing this needs to be completely banned from any online services!
While I am sympathetic to homebrew and even emulators of retro consoles that Nintendo has failed to provide, cheating in current gen multiplayer games is crossing a line! This is as bad as athletes taking steroids or bribing referees. It completely ruins the game!
I don't even mind cheating and hacking in single player, how you want to play with your own toys, by yourself, is totally up to you. But ruining the game for others is totally, completely, unarguably, UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE!
I have been taking care of business with my storage on switch (Finally spreading all my games across 3 128 gb cards and making room on internal memory to have updates for all my gamecard games, except doom, etc in the one place.)
This was the final nail for the 2.1 gb the updates for splatoon 2 were taking on my internal memory. Not that I have played it in months, too many other games.
I'll probably just give the gamecard to one of my nephews or something. It's a fun game but like all online shooters it gets stale after a while.
Some people sure know how to have fun...
@Rafke
You can use a proxy server on the Switch.
What you can't report in game and have to use mobile app lol
$20 A YEAR BABY!! NS ONLINE IS SOO GOOD (lol)
So glad we started paying for online gaming so this kind of thing doesn't happen. ...oh wait...
@shonenjump86 Yeah, well, tell that to Octobrush users.
@dings You just contradicted yourself in your own statement... so what I take from that is that the game is not fun. Personally, I see disconnects all the time in my area.
@thatrandomguy what I meant was rage quitters ruin the fun, but otherwise I don't get wrapped up in winning or losing
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