Rainbow Six Siege Taken Offline After Massive Credit Exploit

Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest game developers, had to take the popular tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege down over the weekend after a major security hole allowed hackers to flood user accounts with billions of dollars’ worth of in-game currency.

The Rainbow Six Siege team announced on their X account on December 27 that they became aware of an incident affecting the game, saying that their teams are working on a resolution. 

The hack exploited the game’s currency, granting R6 players 2 billion credits, which was estimated to be worth around $13.3 million if they were bought legitimately.

The team responded by shutting down the servers, and in an update published later in the day, they confirmed that no one will be banned for spending the credits received. However, the Rainbow Six team said that a rollback of all transactions that occurred since the time of the incident is underway. 

What Actually Happened?

The investigation of the incident uncovered that the exploit gave attackers complete control over the game’s online services. Players who logged in said that they got 2 billion credits each, as well as some unique in-game items, such as exclusive skins, firearms, millions of Renown, as well as thousands of Alpha Packs.

Hackers messed with the chat systems and the ban ticker as well, and some rumors claim that they also sent insulting remarks to Ubisoft leaders.

The R6 Credits that the hackers gave players are the game’s premium currency, which is usually purchased with real money. Players can pay $99.99 to get 15,000 credits. While hackers managed to grant credits worth $13.33 million, Ubisoft quickly stopped live services, including servers and the marketplace, to prevent further damage. 

By December 29, the team posted that the live tests are complete following the rollback, and the game is once again being opened to all players. The team noted that players may still experience a queue when connecting, as the services ramp up.

They also confirmed that the rollback has been completed in full, and that players who did not log in between December 27 at 10:49 UTC and December 29 should see no changes ot their inventory.

For those who did connect during this time, Rainbow Six Siege X noted that a small percentage may temporarily lose access to some owned items, but investigations and corrections will continue over the next two weeks, and this will get sorted over time. As for the Marketplace, the team said that it will remain closed until further notice as investigation continueus.