Ubisoft sues disk fab over game leak

Employee posted pre publication pirate

GAME PUBLISHER UBISOFT is suing its disk manufacturing partner for millions of dollars over the leaking of the PC version of crusading action game Assassin's Creed.

The title, which sold just 40,000 copies to PC gamers, was reportedly downloaded more than 700,000 times after an employee of the duplication house, Optical Experts, allegedly liberated a copy of the game's code and posted it on the internet.

Ubisoft maintains that the OEM ignored strict security guidelines written into its manufacturing contract. The company tracked the first posting of the code to an unnamed Optical Experts employee and a copy of the game was later found in his home.

Ubisoft are also claiming that a bug – which was deliberately placed in the code prior to release for security reasons, and which caused pirated copies of the game to crash – lead to negative reviews of the game which further eroded sales and damaged the company's reputation.