In the past few weeks, several video game-related social media accounts have been hacked. The most recent attack was on 2K Games.
2K Games was founded under Take-Two Interactive. Their extensive library of games includes the series of BioShock, Borderlands, Civilization, X-Com, NBA 2K, and WWE 2K.
2K Games’ social media accounts were hacked on Twitter and Facebook. The accounts affected included the company’s main Facebook and Twitter pages, individual series, and NBA 2K’s Ronnie2K.
Ronnie2K, who’s real name is Ronnie Singh, is the Digital Marketing Director at 2K who’s an expert on the NBA 2K franchise. His social media account has pinned a post condemning the hack, stating: “This handle has been hacked and the recent offensive tweets from this evening have not been written or authorized by Ronnie 2K.”
Compared to the other accounts affected by the hack, Ronnie regained control of his Twitter account within a few hours and deleted all of the offensive tweets.
The content of the hacked tweets ranged from supporting superheroes and various YouTubers. Others were more offensive, including the WWE 2K Facebook account.
WWE 2K Facebook’s account was significantly changed. The profile photo was switched to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), a competing promo company. There was also a large banner of Chris Benoit, a highly controversial wrestler who passed away in 2007.
The hackers and 2K Games went back and forth controlling the accounts. 2K Games did their best to update fans on the status: “We are aware that social media accounts across the 2K label have been compromised and offensive material is being posted that does not reflect the values of 2K or our partners. We are actively working to fix this as soon as possible.”
By Saturday, 2K Games regained control of their social media accounts and scrubbed them of any offensive content. They also issued several official statements on social media and their official websites, apologising for what happened.
This hack comes only days after EA staff suffered from compromised accounts. After a well-known YouTuber was issued a lifetime ban for “abusive, harassing, and vulgar” behavior, his supporters, hacked employee accounts with tweets either praising the YouTuber or posting fake content that he was unbanned.
