French video gaming giant Ubisoft has been forced to halt the live services of Rainbow Six Siege after hackers breached the game and dished out 2 billion in-game credits to every player.
The exploit was initially confirmed by the team via X on Dec. 27, with a series of updates following, ultimately leading to a suspension of the game’s servers and marketplace the following day.
Reports from players on social media indicate that hackers were able to take control of the major parts of the game’s online systems, with players reporting that everyone was receiving 2 billion in-game R6 credits upon logging in, alongside rare items such as skins and guns.
Meanwhile, the hackers also got control of the game’s messaging and banning systems, according to screenshots shared by players.
With the game selling 15,000 R6 credits for $99.99 a pop, players would have to spend roughly $13.33 million to accrue 2 billion points.
In an X post on Dec. 28, the Rainbow Six Siege team announced that it was working on a reversal of in-game credits received after 11 AM UTC time.
“A rollback is currently ongoing and afterwards, extensive quality control tests will be executed to ensure the integrity of accounts and effectiveness of changes,” the team said.
“Please know that this matter is being handled with extreme care and therefore, timing cannot be guaranteed. We will provide another update as soon as we know more” they added.
The team has also said players will not be banned for spending any of the credits they received.
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Game is coming back via soft-launch
The game is currently in testing with a small number of players to relaunch.
“Opening the game to a small number of players only, while we complete live tests. More information on the rollback and full live relaunch to come,” the team said on X.
Rainbow Six is a major franchise under the Ubisoft umbrella, with its Siege title having a daily average of over 34,000 active players in December according to data from Active Player.
The team’s ability to rescind in-game currency transactions would not be possible if the game utilized genuinely decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether. But as the controversial rollback of the Flow blockchain on the weekend demonstrates, it’s certainly a live possibility for some crypto projects too.
Ubisoft has made several plays in the blockchain gaming space, teaming up with Immutable early this year to tap the firm’s infrastructure to integrate with the firm’s Web3 games such as Might & Magic.
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