Video game developer Electronic Arts (EA) has been breached, with hackers attempting to sell the stolen source code and software development kits for millions of dollars.

The bad actors posted on various hacking forums trying to find buyers for what they said was 780GB of ill-gotten data including debugging tools, API keys, and development kits for the popular FIFA 22 game as well as the source code for the Frostbite game engine.

“You have full capability of exploiting on all EA services,” said one advertisement on Raidforums.

They are trying to sell the data for US$28 million, according to Bleeping Computer.

Hackers posted ‘proof’ of the leak including screenshots of files they had access to and a .txt file that appears to be related to FIFA’s online code.

EA confirmed the intrusion, saying the hackers took a “limited amount of game source code and related tools”.

“No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy,” EA said.

“Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business.

“We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”

Some of EA’s largest titles like the FIFA and Battlefield series are built on the Frostbite engine which means its source code could be valuable for unethical game developers looking to copy some of EA’s success.

Bad actors used forums to try and sell the data.

Developers of cheats could also use the source code to find new exploits they can then sell to players who want to cheat in EA’s multiplayer games.

Last year, someone leaked the code for Valve’s Source engine that is used for its popular online games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

The company swatted back concern that the code could be used to engineer cheats by saying the bad actors had simply re-posted an older form of code that was leaked in 2018 and there was no reason for players to be alarmed.

Earlier this year, the developers behind the ill-fated Cyberpunk 2077 were hit with by ransomware attack in which the hackers claimed to have taken source codes for Cyberpunk 2077 and the critically acclaimed Witcher 3.

In that instance, the hackers tried auctioning the data off with a starting price of US$1 million.