Call Of Duty Game Briefly Taken Offline Due To Reports Of Malicious Hackers

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 being taken offline might sound like a disaster for Activision Blizzard, but that would only be the case if it were still 2009. The developer has taken down the older Modern Warfare 2 on PC due to reports of malware and hacked lobbies.

The issues appear to have started on late June, when a Steam user reported that they obtained a trojan through a hacked lobby. In that same thread, one user claimed to have analyzed the malware, concluding that it was a worm and that it was likely crafted specifically to work through Modern Warfare 2. Activision posted a tweet announcing that Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer on PC was down until further notice while the company investigated the issue. It returned several days later.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may have come out over a decade ago, but many COD entries still have a small-but-active playerbase many years after release. For comparison's sake, the next game in the series, the original Black Ops, still has around 750 active daily players according to SteamCharts. In other Call of Duty news, Modern Warfare 3's logo was apparently leaked on a Monster Energy box. Reportedly in development at Sledgehammer Games, COD fans are speculating that the obscured face behind Captain Price on the box is Vladimir Makarov, one of the main enemies from the original Modern Warfare 3.