Over this last weekend, players of the competitive shooter Rainbow Six Siege: X were struck with confusion and awe as billions of R6 credits were reportedly placed into their account by hackers, and some getting the short end of the stick and getting banned for no apparent reason. Additionally, there were also exploits launched using the game’s moderation logs; which were used to write provocative messages and of all things list the lyrics to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” On Saturday, December 27th, as a result of the “incident” Ubisoft issued the following statement on X:
Ubisoft’s decision to fully close the game for the broader public as long as they did–which was until the next day on December 28th–made some in the community believe that the hack was more severe than it actually was. And though there were claims floating around the internet that there were other more serious exploits made by the hackers besides the shenanigans described above, this information was unfounded, according to Insider Gaming Co-Founder Tom Henderson. Since Sunday, Ubisoft has completed its rollback and seems to have fixed the situation, somewhat unfortunately for those who took advantage of the hack and spent the in-game currency they received from it. Players who did so did not get banned by the studio, but Ubisoft asserted that “a small percentage of players” would have some of their cosmetics in the game temporarily revoked as a result.
Despite the game now being back at its full capacity at the time of writing, some players were faced with long queues to log back in, which caused many to take to social media to lament about the wait. It seems like the general opinion in the community is simultaneously that of reverence for the brief moment of millions worth of pay-walled cosmetics being at the playerbase’s fingertips, and also disappointment at Ubisoft’s handling of the situation.