In Rainbow Six: Siege X, hackers have taken control of the game. Now Ubisoft had to reluctantly take the servers offline.
Which game is it about?
- Rainbow Six: Siege is Ubisoft’s most financially successful game, as revealed in a financial report from the company. Only Assassin’s Creed has brought in more money for Ubisoft, but that accounts for the entire game series, while Rainbow Six: Siege is a single game.
- Rainbow Six: Siege is a tactical shooter that was released in December 2015. Since then, the title has received numerous new maps and playable characters with unique abilities and new weapons through the regularly released seasons.
- In Rainbow Six: Siege, two teams of 5 players each compete against each other. The main game mode’s objective is to eliminate all opponents or defuse a bomb before time runs out. Players can choose from a pool of playable characters, each with different weapons, abilities, and gadgets to shape the map to their advantage.
Now Ubisoft had to reluctantly take the servers of Rainbow Six: Siege offline to address a serious security issue.
What is happening with Rainbow Six: Siege? In Ubisoft’s tactical shooter, hackers have completely taken control in recent days – we deliberately refer to “hackers,” as the extent and damage caused far exceed the actions of normal “cheaters”.
The escalation of hackers had various stages, with the timeline being unclear. Reported incidents include:
- The hackers banned and unbanned a multitude of players and took over the ban feed, which usually shows when a player has been banned. Instead of player IDs, they wrote arbitrary text there.
- Players received several billion of the in-game currency “Renown” and the premium currency “R6 Credits” transferred by the hackers.
- The hackers distributed cosmetic content, including extremely rare items that only developers or people who were present at LAN tournaments possess.
- Players received massive XP/level boosts and suddenly jumped thousands of levels.
To control the situation, Ubisoft shut down the servers of Rainbow Six: Siege and the “Rainbow Six Siege” marketplace.
What happens if you use the “gifts” from the hackers? As Ubisoft stated on X, no one will be banned for spending the Credits (premium currency) received from hackers. However, there will be a rollback that reverses all transactions during the relevant period.
Already in 2022, Ubisoft struggled with a severe escalation from cheaters in Rainbow Six: Siege. They were able to project images onto players’ screens at will via the ban feed. Here you can read our report from back then: Cheaters of a popular shooter reach the next level, manipulate screens, and make you see chickens
