Red Barrels, the development studio behind the Outlast series, has suffered a major cyber attack.
In a statement on its website, the developer Red Barrels confirms its "internal IT systems" were hacked, "involving access to some of its data". Having completed an investigation of the situation, the team confirms that players of its games are unaffected by the data breach.
As a result of the attack, development on its current work will see "significant" delays. "We'll share a more detailed update on that as soon as we can," the statement reads.
According to MP1st, citing an anonymous source close to the situation, the attack has come from a group named 'Nitrogen', with 1.8TB of data stolen from Red Barrels. The report states that source code for "at least" Outlast 1 and Outlast 2 is included, along with financial information, HR files, and game builds.
The data is reportedly being held to ransom for an undisclosed sum of money, with a threat to release all the information publicly if left unpaid.
Many gaming studios and publishers have been targeted in this way; Insomniac Games suffered a similar data breach at the end of last year, resulting in the release of a ton of stolen information.
[source redbarrelsgames.com, via mp1st.com]
Comments 8
People like this are truly cancerous
@Oram77 you're being far too nice. Cancer can at least be cured.
The joys of being a game developer in the middle of a boring cyberpunk dystopia.
I'm a bit two faced about things like this.
On the one hand I definitely think it's awful and I hope the leaker gets caught and severely punished.
But on the other, this industry is so closed-off and cloak and dagger that large leaks are often the only thing that confirms facts and figures without cherry picking to put a spin on it. It's the one time the industry is entirely truthful.
I'm sure that's not entirely helpful or just, but it IS honest.
@themightyant I understand where you are coming from. But for me, I absolutely hate this leak culture we are in. Imagine something you have been working on for years get's leaked, AND then they try to black mail you!
Did Red Barrels do something wrong to warrant this attack - not that any cyber-attack is justifiable, but some people see it as a virtuous act in response to injustices - or is this merely a case of some [expletive] looking for an opportunity to make some money?
Bottom feeders the lot of em' publishing game code is one thing but peoples personal data is inexcusable.
@Oram77 I fully get it. In fact I've been in that situation, saying it sucks doesn't even begin to cover it, it's like the bottom of your world falls out, there goes all the plans you had and you have to scramble to try and fix it. I have a ridiculous amount of empathy for those in that position, it's truly awful. I'm not encouraging blackmail either.
To be clear i'm not talking about leaks of games, or future lineups or anything like that, I don't want or care about any of that. It's more about OLD business numbers and data that could be made available to us, but gaming companies are too over-protective. We often don't even see sales numbers, unlike virtually every other media industry.
E.g. Take the Insomniac leak for example and we saw that PlayStation Studios and first-party games sold 66% as PHYSICAL media as recently as 2022. That IS interesting, especially when Sony are cherry picking another statistic (67% digital in FY2022) to suggest to us that physical media is dying. They just want a bigger piece of the pie.
If the industry wasn't so closeted and two-faced about all their data, cherry picking it to spin it to their advantage, then we wouldn't have to be two-faced about where we get it.
That all said. I do sincerely hope the people at Red Barrell are OK.
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