The Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks that were brought into the spotlight in recent months were allegedly caused by former members of the "Save Titanfall" team according to a new report from current members.
Last month, I interviewed DirectXeon and p0358, admins of two distinct Discord communities that were, at the time, part of the Save Titanfall project. The Save Titanfall project was created to highlight a number of serious issues with Titanfall (and later Titanfall 2) — namely, the fact that someone was repeatedly hacking and DDOSing the game's servers and rendering it entirely unplayable.
The Titanfall games were popular enough in their heydey, but their player count today doesn't quite compare to the past and the severity of this situation flew under the radar for some time. It might have stayed that way were it not for a strange happening with Apex Legends — someone breached the game's servers and effectively disabled them for the better part of a day while also pointing people towards the Save Titanfall website.
Both the Save Titanfall team and the hacker denied any association with one another. Shortly thereafter, p0358 and the "TF Remnant Fleet" Discord server parted ways with the Save Titanfall project, leaving the NoSkill Community headed up by DirectXeon in charge of the Save Titanfall website.
Now, the remaining members of the Save Titanfall team have released a new report which alleges that p0358 and several co-conspirators were behind the Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks for the strangest of reasons — they wanted to somehow revive an old free-to-play version of Titanfall created by Nexon for the Asian market. A video from Upper Echelon Gamers breaks things down quite nicely based on the report from the Save Titanfall team:
Save Titanfall's Transparency Report Details Apex Legends and Titanfall Hacks
The current Save Titanfall team has released a report on the Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks. The intro page for the report explains why it was created and the report itself has an impressive amount of evidence included in a separate folder.
"This is not only the story of gamers who cannot play the game that they paid for: we are human beings who built and invested time in the community," read the report's intro. "We are the community. We build relationships, share our creativity, teach each other and help each other. Titanfall is only the background dressing."
"Not only are doxxing, harassment[,] and hacking illegal, but they are also destructive towards the Titanfall community," the intro continued. "We should not let a handful of individuals speak in the name of what we've built-- they are willing to sacrifice this for their personal interest."
The Save Titanfall Transparency Report states that a hacker named "Jeanue" was said to be the source of all of the problems with the Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks. However, it proceeds to accuse TF Remnant Fleet administrator p0358 and TF Remnant Fleet members dogecore and MrSteyk of being the actual people behind the DDOS attacks and other problems that have been going on with Respawn Entertainment's games in recent months. It further alleges that TF Remnant Fleet Discord server admin RedShield helped organize this operation, although it notes that he was not meaningfully involved in the technical execution.
A total of 40 pages show screenshots of Discord conversations which purport to show these parties publicly claiming no involvement with the Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks. Several alleged screenshots of private conversations, however, appear to show the group planning and executing various disruptions for these games.
Supplementing the 40-page Save Titanfall Transparency Report is a folder containing associated evidence cited throughout the report. Aside from screenshots, there are also videos of screen captures that scroll through chat conversations and highlight the names of people in Discord, ostensibly to further prove the authenticity of these chats.
The strangest allegation of all, however, is the supposed motivation behind the attacks on Respawn Entertainment's games: the group wished to revive Titanfall Online after getting Titanfall and Titanfall 2 shut down. Titanfall Online is a canceled free-to-play version of Titanfall that was intended for the Asian market; it was never publicly released aside from a closed beta test.
After some time, the allegations in the Save Titanfall Transparency Report were addressed by TF Remnant Fleet Discord admin RedShield in the server's #announcements-local channel.
"In the interest of transparency, I've been in contact with Upper Echelon for a few hours now, I'll get them a tour of the secret channels, they'll get their fill, you'll get your fill, and everything will be cleared up and we can go back to enjoying Titanfall," read a portion of RedShield's statement.
"In the [meantime], I'd like everyone to know that we're not behind Titanfall 1 attacks, Titanfall 2 attacks, Apex Legends attacks."
Subsequent replies by RedShield (as seen in the above screenshot) assert that the accusations in the Save Titanfall Transparency Report are false (with some exceptions), but the screenshots and videos contained in the included evidence are real.
"I have never gone out of my way to crash lobbies in any Titanfall 1 lobby, Titanfall 2 lobby, or Apex Legends lobby," RedShield's statement continued. "The only time I've ever been involved with a crash was months ago when a community member asked me to help them test a new exploit they'd found to see if it'd work. A controlled test where only agreeing individuals were involved, for science and documentation. I had no reason to believe it was for malicious intent, nor do I have any reason now."
In summary: TF Remnant Fleet's Discord server admin RedShield says that the screenshots included in the Save Titanfall Transparency Report are genuine, but they "took stuff out of context" and don't paint the full picture of what's going on. You can download the Save Titanfall Transparency Report to see all of the provided evidence and decide for yourself.
There are no real answers here. If these allegations are true, the accused parties could be in some serious legal trouble. And then there's the matter of the Titanfall and Apex Legends games — what's going to happen in the future? Unfortunately, this whole event has created more questions than answers, and I suspect that we won't likely find out the whole truth for quite some time.
What do you think of the allegations surrounding the Apex Legends and Titanfall hacks? Do you think Respawn Entertainment will be able to finally get a handle on preventing these problems in the near future? Let us know in the comments below!
