Warhorse Studios, the developer behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series and currently working on a new Lord of the Rings title, recently suffered a "serious" cybersecurity incident.
Since the birth of video games, hackers have never stopped targeting various aspects of the industry, from the games themselves to their development teams. In recent years, hacking incidents in the gaming industry have increased significantly, with databases of many well-known studios such as Rockstar, Insomniac Games, and Capcom being breached.
Earlier this week, another major developer joined the list of those breached—Warhorse Studios, the developer of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its sequel. The company issued a statement confirming "unauthorized access to company systems," with CEO Martin Fivra describing it as a "serious" incident. However, the actual situation may be worse than what has been officially disclosed.
Earlier today, Warhorse Studios released an update on the incident, confirming that hackers had gained access to their systems, but it remains uncertain whether "personal information" was affected. The studio stated it is continuing to cooperate with law enforcement investigations and will not be accepting interviews or providing further comments at this stage.
However, the severity of the situation seems far greater than what the statement suggests. ResetEra forum user RedbullCola reposted the official statement and revealed that an insider from the studio informed him that this was a ransomware attack, with all systems compromised and game development "basically at a complete standstill."
They are not alone in this account. Reddit user bertik11 also described the situation as "extremely serious": as a security precaution, all computers have been disconnected from the internet, leaving employees "completely unable to work." It is reported that the studio has prohibited employees from turning on any computers, as hackers are demanding a ransom from the studio.
If these reports are true, the development progress of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance sequel and the mysterious Lord of the Rings project will be impacted. Although a few days of downtime might not seem like it would cause significant delays, no one can predict how long the situation will last or the ultimate extent of the damage.