Back on January 16th, the publisher for Rainbow Six Siege Ubisoft filed a lawsuit against the owners of a website called SNG.ONE. According to the lawsuit, the website allegedly sold subscriptions for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) that caused a lag in multiplayer matches and sometimes crashed servers. According to IGN and Polygon, on the surface the website sold plans to companies that wanted to evaluate the security of their website, however, when Ubisoft investigated the company they found that the site allegedly had access to Epic Games’s Fortnite, Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), and game servers belonging to other companies.
The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants used SNG.ONE to sell subscriptions costing almost $300 for “lifetime” access to the server, with monthly subscription costs of $30. Ubisoft also claims that the site owners “are well aware of the harm” their services have caused the company, with the defendants allegedly sending a tweet, which has since been removed, that was meant to taunt the company. The company also alleges that the defendants created false “seizure” notice on SNG.ONE which “falsely claimed” that Microsoft and Ubisoft had taken over their website. Ubisoft has managed to curb the DDoS attacks by 93% since the implementation of their October 29th update and this lawsuit is attempting to attack the alleged root of the problem. The company has asked the court to shut down the websites, as well as award damages and fees for the alleged actions of the defendants.
This isn’t the first time Ubisoft sued a website owner for allegedly providing a service that allegedly targeted Rainbow Six Siege. Back in October of 2019, the company sued minor by the name of J.V.L for allegedly selling a subscription for a “Budget Rainbow Six Siege Cheat.” Ubisoft requested a shut down of the site as well as $25,000 in damages per violation. No new information is available about either case at the moment, but it is possible that more information will be released at a later date.
While this lawsuit is occurring, Ubisoft is also intending to restructure their editorial team with the intention of helping the company “diversify its portfolio of games and IPs and help keep their offered titles flexible and distinct among the competition.” The editorial team remains under the leadership of chief creative officer Serge Hascoet and the vice president level members of the advisory board. Ubisoft also intends to delay number of its games including Rainbow Six Quarantine which was originally set to release in the first quarter of 2020. The title will now be released in the second half of this year.