Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco reportedly hit by ransomware attack

Bandai Namco, publisher of Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Soulcalibur, has reportedly been targeted by a ransomware attack.

Word of the hack was surfaced by malware tracker vx-underground, which spotted a claim by notorious ransomware group ALPHV, otherwise known as BlackCat.

A post by the group suggested it was poised to release data acquired from Bandai Namco’s servers “soon” (thanks, Kotaku).

There’s no detail yet on what data the group may have obtained, and Bandai Namco is yet to acknowledge the hack.

Eurogamer has contacted the publisher for comment.

Of course, there are fears the data will include private information regarding Bandai Namco’s employees, as well as user details.

Perhaps more likely, judging on recent precedent, is the threat to the company of a damaging leak of internal documentation, such as confidential deals with developers, employee communications, and video game source code.

Previous ransomware attacks have targetted companies such as Capcom, EA and CD Projekt Red, with the former subject to a damaging leak that revealed details of its upcoming product schedule for years to come.

Following its own hack, CD Projekt Red source code, assets and videos showing work-in-progress builds of Cyberpunk 2077 were also leaked online.

Finally, last year, hackers who stole source code to FIFA 21 and game engine Frostbite attempted to sell the data online.

We’ll update with more detail from Bandai Namco when we have it.