It’s a storm that the community didn’t see coming. On December 27, Ubisoft faced a massive hack targeting Rainbow Six Siege. An incident with major consequences which pushed the publisher to temporarily interrupt the game’s servers as well as its store, on all platforms. “Ubisoft has temporarily closed the Rainbow Six Siege servers and store on all platforms.”
Users reported anomalies early in the morning: strange messages appearing in-game, unexplained expulsions, and above all… normally inaccessible rewards. Some players suddenly saw their accounts credited with billion credits virtual and found themselves equipped with exclusive developer skins. “Players have received billions of credits and rare skins, all purchased in-game.”
Poisoned gifts: the scale of the hack is unprecedented
This hack is far from trivial. In addition to unlocked items, many accounts have been automatically bannedas if the security system was trying to stem the anomaly by punishing the victims themselves.
Even more worrying, some alerts displayed snippets of songs or political statements, sowing confusion. While Ubisoft hasn’t officially used the word “piracy,” the emergency shutdown speaks for itself. “Siege Mode and Marketplace have been temporarily unavailable while the team focuses on resolving the issue.”
The company described the incident as a simple “incident”, without specifying its nature. A vague communication that leaves players perplexed as to the real seriousness of the matter.
Bad timing for Ubisoft: players on vacation deprived of gaming
The schedule makes the situation even more tricky. In the middle of the holiday period, the majority of players finally have free time to immerse themselves in their favorite games. And for a title as competitive as Rainbow Six Siege, where ranked matches punctuate the evenings, this unavailability comes at a very bad time.
The eSports community, very active during the holidays, is also impacted. Tournaments canceled, training sessions stopped, content suspended: the snowball effect is palpable. If the flaw has allowed unexpected gains for some, the general atmosphere remains one of frustration.
The mystery remains: Ubisoft keeps silent about those responsible
For the moment, neither the duration of the closure, nor the identity of the pirates, nor the exact measures to come have been communicated. Some fear that the damage will be irreversible for the game economy. Others hope for a rollback of affected accounts. The only point on which everyone agrees: Ubisoft must act quickly.
Rainbow Six Siege is one of Ubisoft’s multiplayer pillars. This attack weakens its reputation as much as its technical stability. It remains to be seen whether the publisher will be able to restore confidence, and above all, when the servers will reopen.