‘Atlas’ Hackers Use Admin’s Account to Spawn Planes, Tanks and Whales

By Stefanie Fogel

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Things got a little weird in the online pirate-themed survival game “Atlas” on Thursday after hackers allegedly compromised an admin’s Steam account and used it to spawn planes, tanks, and whales.

“Earlier today, an admin’s Steam account was compromised and used to cause some devastation on our official North American PvP network,” developer Grapeshot Games wrote on the “” community forums. “To be clear this was not caused by a hack, third party program, or exploit. We have taken the appropriate steps to ensure this does not happen again.”

Several Twitch streamers managed to capture the hacking incidents during their broadcasts and post them on the “Atlas” subreddit. In this clip from CrReaM, a whale falls from the sky and capsizes his ship.

Streamer BurkeBlack posted video of a cornered galleon being miraculously saved by multiple whale spawns. (Warning: there’s some salty language.)

BurkeBlack also captured the moment a plane nearly crashes into his ship — an unusual sight in “Atlas’” fantasy pirate world.

said it will roll back its official NA PvP network by approximately five and a half hours because of the hack.

“Atlas” launched in early access on Steam on Dec. 22 after a number of delays. It’s reportedly had a tough time since launch thanks to severe server lag and other issues. Developers Studio Wildcard and Grapeshot Games admitted the game was off to a “stormy start” and said the initial influx of players was larger than anticipated. They say they’re now heavily prioritizing server connection and capacity resolutions, along with server and client-side performance improvements.