Among Us is the surprise hit game of 2020, as the two-year old game has become a star online thanks to its amplification on Twitch streams and amid an explosion of party game popularity.
But the backlash against the game has officially begun, and according to reports, it’s of a political nature. Among Us developer InnerSloth shared on Twitter that it was aware of the spam promoting an online handle, “Eris Loris,” and is attempting to fight back against what appears to be a coordinated attack.
Hello everyone,
We’re are super duper aware of the current hacking issue and we’re looking into it. We will be pushing out an emergency server update so people who are in game will get kicked from games. Please play private games or with people that you trust!!! Bare with us!!— InnerSloth (@InnerslothDevs) October 23, 2020
The Verge reported on Friday that pro-Trump hackers and trolls are apparently wreaking havoc on the game’s servers and doing their best to disrupt games played, even among friends. They cited a Eurogamer report that apparently included an interview with the hacker behind the attack, who claims to have recruited others to coordinate a pro-Trump message on the game’s servers.
via The Verge:
The end goal, it appears, is to promote the Eris Loris YouTube channel, which advertises hacks and other game cheating services. The spam attack may have hit as many as 1.5 million games, affecting close to 5 million players if the hackers’ claims are to be believed. Loris is also a self-described Trump supporter, the report says.
It’s entirely unclear why Among Us was targeted for the attack, other than its meteoric rise in popularity. But the attack also comes days after New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caused considerable buzz by playing the game on Twitch with other streamers and liberal politicians. That stream was one of the platform’s most popular ever, and certainly one of the high-water marks for a game that’s become so popular InnerSloth stopped working on a sequel to support the current title.