On August 31, Blue Archive players on global servers reported several instances of troublemaking character Koyuki taking over the game. The thumbnails of the recruitment banners were replaced with Koyuki’s 3D model, and the in-game cafés featured crowds of multiple Koyukis visiting simultaneously (this was later replaced with several versions of other students and Hatsune Miku). Additionally, the title of the game’s information page was modified to “nihahaha,” reflecting Koyuki’s penchant for mischief. After an emergency maintenance period that lasted roughly six hours, the abnormalities were corrected, and a formal investigation was conducted.
According to Nexon’s official notice, the hack was redirected to an IP located somewhere in the Netherlands. Based on the nature of the breach (which some players are now calling a “Koyukification” of the game), it seems that the perpetrator is also a fan of Blue Archive.
An investigation into the status of the global servers revealed that, other than the aforementioned abnormalities, no other data was tampered with or stolen. This includes sensitive information such as player accounts, game data, and payment information – all of which are stored in a separate database and routinely validated by the game server.
Nexon has since implemented additional countermeasures that further restrict access to the internal workings of the Blue Archive servers. The hack was also reported to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), with which the company is working closely on another ongoing investigation.
As compensation for the unscheduled maintenance, Blue Archive is rewarding all players with one 10-Recruitment Ticket, 500 AP, 150 Tactical Challenge Coins, 3,000 Expert Permits, 300,000 Credit Points, 7 Lesson Tickets, 7 Bounty Tickets, 840 Pyroxenes, and 7 Scrimmage Tickets. All you have to do is log in between September 1 and September 8 at 2:59 pm UTC. It should be noted that while global Blue Archive players experienced the Koyukification, the Japanese version (which is managed by Yostar Games) was not affected.
Blue Archive is available for Android, iOS, and Windows (Steam).
Related: Blue Archive terminates event suspected of violating Steam policies, apologizes for “inconvenience”
