Update (07/04/21, 10:52 PM EST) – The Apex Legends hack that affected PC, PlayStation, and Xbox players and promoted the "Save Titanfall" campaign has come to an end, Respawn Entertainment says.
Approximately one hour ago, Respawn Entertainment published a fix that it believed would resolve the issue. An hour has passed and the Apex Legends developer has happily confirmed that the game has resumed normal operations.
"We’ve confirmed that matchmaking has been restored," read a tweet from Respawn updating players on the situation. "We’re keeping an eye on things but believe the issue to be resolved. Thanks for your patience, Legends."
Our original story continues below.
An Apex Legends hack is currently underway, disabling the ability to play the game on PC and consoles and highlighting the "Save Titanfall" campaign which raises issues with Respawn's previous games.
Apex Legends is a Battle Royale game created by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It's proven to be fairly popular and has been running for well over two years now. Unfortunately, the Titanfall games that came before it aren't doing too well — and now a hacker has taken the initiative to bring attention to this problem by hacking the game itself.
What's Going On With the Apex Legends Hack?
I couldn't view the Apex Legends hack after first booting the game. However, playing and completing one match revealed the above message which directs people to the "Save Titanfall" website — the homage page for the "Operation Red Tape" Titanfall initiative.
Following the completion of a match, the hack displays an "Important message" which implores people to visit the Save Titanfall website. The ability to queue for a game is then replaced with a "Save Titanfall" message as shown on the bottom left of the below screenshot.
The Apex Legends hack isn't just changing some text, however — players affected by the hack are unable to queue for a new game after this message is displayed.
I tested it out myself and got the exact same results as other players have reported:
Sure enough, I was unable to actually queue for anything after clicking on the "Save Titanfall" button on the bottom left. Restarting the game didn't help, either — once this message appears, it seems that you're locked out of playing Apex Legends entirely.
This Apex Legends hack is not just on PC, either. Early reporting on Reddit has some players stating that they have not been affected by this issue. However, a recent update from Dexerto's Apex Legends News Twitter account is reporting that players on Xbox are beginning to see the message, and a subsequent report notes that it has spread to PlayStation, too.
'Operation Red Tape' Denies Association with 'Save Titanfall' Apex Legends Hack
The Apex Legends hack is certainly troublesome, especially for people who were hoping to enjoy their July 4th with some games. The entire point of it is to direct people towards the Save Titanfall campaign, so we went ahead and checked it out.
Before we go on, it's important to note that the Save Titanfall campaign has flatly denied any association with the Apex Legends hack in a message posted to the top of its website:
IMPORTANT MESSAGE This website, nor the Discord servers listed below, are in no way associated with the recent Apex Legends hack.
In addition to the above message, one of the group's Discord server admins released a public statement on the group's Discord server explaining the situation.
Titanfall 1 seems to be currently in a playable state at the moment. Enjoy playing it while it lasts.
However, do not get fooled. Respawn has nothing to do with it and they did not fix any issues. It has happened numerous times before – whenever our cause goes into [the] spotlight for any reason and everyone's looking, the attacker takes down his bots for a while as a means of self-preservation.
It's worth [noting] that at the same time Titanfall 2 is still under [attack].
I want to say that we are not the people/server behind the Apex situation and the messages you have seen directing you here, and we don't know who it is. It appears that someone did want to spread the info about [the] Titanfall situation and we feel them, we want to play our game again as well. Our site is probably the best source of information packed into one place, so it's probably logical they have selected that one to link with such [a] goal in mind. So please don't be angry at us, those who are.
While this was [pretty] surprising news to us in the morning, we would like to welcome all the new players and express a hope that Titanfall will soon be in [better] condition and that you will stay with us while awaiting that to happen. Make sure to pick platform roles to see the rest of the server if you want to play with us.
We're sorry though for any Apex players who were unable to play their game in this situation. This should be possible to mitigate by selecting a different data center in case it's happening to you.
At the same time, please imagine that we've been dealing with something worse for [the] past three years, most of the time being unable to play our game, Titanfall 1, at all, with no workarounds possible anymore. The servers were and are taken hostage by a hacker and his friends out of hatred towards our community and Respawn fails to do anything about it, despite fixes and exploits used being so trivial (yet there's many of them – it's what you get if you fix none of them).
Spread the word, there is no excuse for letting this happen knowingly for 3 years, meanwhile releasing the game on Steam and putting it on numerous sales like nothing's wrong, while people who buy the game can only watch the main menu screen, since it's [an] online-only game.
TLDR:
~ welcome everyone new
~ we are not the people behind [the] Apex situation (also raiding/spamming won't help, will only get you banned)
~ Titanfall 1 is currently temporarily playable, for now, but not thanks to Respawn
~ stick with us for more news in the future
It should be noted that the Apex Legends hack appears to have been recently updated with a message from the hacker denying any association with the website. We've reached out to EA, the Save Titanfall campaign, and the hacker for comment and will update this article when we receive a reply.
The Save Titanfall campaign aims to bring attention to the state of Respawn Entertainment's earlier game Titanfall, the same universe that gave birth to Apex Legends. The game is doing fine on consoles, but the PC version reportedly has a bunch of issues including rampant DDOSing of servers and hackers in the game.
The campaign takes issue with the fact that Respawn and EA are still selling Titanfall despite these issues making it wholly unplayable in multiplayer for some players. This is supported by several links at the bottom of the website which highlight players who have repeatedly reported these problems to both Respawn and EA, seemingly with no response. The lack of communication, however, was partially resolved when Respawn Entertainment publicly commented on the matter back in early April 2021.
"We're aware of ongoing DDOS attacks affecting [Titanfall]," read a tweet from Respawn Entertainment. "To the Titanfall community: Help is coming ASAP."
Since then, however, there hasn't been much in the way of public commentary on the matter, presumably because Respawn is still working on correcting the issue. Neither Respawn Entertainment, EA Help, nor the public Apex Legends social media accounts have commented as of yet on this ongoing hack. We have yet to discover any working solution for the current issue with Apex Legends, either; it seems that anyone who wants to play the game will have to wait until Respawn and EA resolve the problem on their end.
For now, you can check out the Save Titanfall website to learn more about the issue that was apparently a driving force behind today's Apex Legends hack. You can play Apex Legends for free on PC and consoles via its official website and you can purchase the Apex Legends Champion Edition for PC via Steam for $27.99, a 30% discount as part of the Steam Summer Sale.
Update (07/04/21, 4:47 PM ET) – Respawn Entertainment has put out a tweet acknowledging the issue and stating that they are working to resolve the problem.
"We are aware of and actively investigating issues impacting [Apex Legends] playlists that are preventing players from getting into matches," read the tweet.
Update (07/04/21, 7:15 PM ET) – There's another update from Respawn about the Apex Legends hack. While the servers are still not yet online, Respawn has determined that players' personal information or accounts are not at risk.
"We’re testing a fix now and will update when we have more confidence," read a follow-up tweet. "Additional updates may be required. "In the meantime, we’ve determined that this attack—while disruptive—has not put players’ personal information or accounts at risk. More updates to come as we make progress."
What do you think of today's Apex Legends hack? Do you think Respawn and EA have done a good job of maintaining the Titanfall games? Let us know in the comments below!
