Hard to have sympathy for Ubisoft the company as they are regularly used as an example of the most anti-consumer practices out there. But the whole situation is a mess, and if anything, it is probably the consumers that will end up suffering the most for this.
The line "How could I forget that I had given her an extra key?" comes to mind. Maybe someone left an API key laying around somewhere? Although I could be giving the hackers too much credit...
It's a shame this game has to pander to eSports fanatics rendering it into a completely hollowed out soulless experience. From the early days of Operation Chimera to selling half of your stake and IPs to Tencent, Ubisoft has seen it all.
+1. Can’t believe how they held amazing IPs and then milked them to death while lowering the quality game over game. Whether it’s far cry or assassin’s creed, all the later iterations are worse than the series start.
Oh wow, they cancelled it?
I played it for a bit on release. Kinda fun, didn't stick with it, but surprised it's already cancelled so short after release.
- THE FIRST GROUP of individuals exploited a Rainbow 6 Siege service allowing them ban players, modify inventory, etc. These individuals did not touch user data (unsure if they even could). They gifted roughly $339,960,000,000,000 worth of in-game currency to players. Ubisoft will perform a roll back to undo the damages. They're probably annoyed. I cannot go into full details at this time how it was achieved.
- A SECOND GROUP of individuals, unrelated to the FIRST GROUP of individuals, exploited a MongoDB instance from Ubisoft, using MongoBleed, which allowed them (in some capacity) to pivot to an internal Git repository. They exfiltrated a large portion of Ubisoft's internal source code. They assert it is data from the 90's - present, including software development kits, multiplayer services, etc. I have medium to high confidence this true. I've confirmed this with multiple parties.
- A THIRD GROUP of individuals claim to have compromised Ubisoft and exfiltrated user data by exploiting MongoDB via MongoBleed. This group is trying to extort Ubisoft. They have a name for their extortion group and are active on Telegram. However, I have been unable to determine the validity of their claims.
- A FOURTH GROUP of individuals assert the SECOND group of individuals are LYING and state the SECOND GROUP has had access to the Ubisoft internal source code for awhile. However, they state the SECOND GROUP is trying to hide behind the FIRST GROUP to masquerade as them and give them a reason to leak the source code in totality. The FIRST GROUP and FOURTH GROUP is frustrated by this
Will the SECOND GROUP leak the source code? Is the SECOND GROUP telling the truth? Did the SECOND GROUP lie and have access to Ubisoft code this whole time? Was it MongoBleed? Will the FIRST GROUP get pinned for this? Who is this mysterious THIRD GROUP? Is this group related to any of the other groups?
I used to work for Ubisoft, though not on Siege- I have met and had detailed conversations with their lead architect though; truthfully I remember little of those conversations.
Regarding the second group and access to source code; this is unlikely for a combination of four reasons.
1) The internal Ubisoft network is split between “player stuff” (ONBE) and developer stuff.
2) The ONBE network is deny by default, no movement is possible unless its explicitly requested ahead of time, by developers, in a formal request that must be limited in scope.
3) ONBE to “developer network” connections are almost never granted. We had one exception to this on the Division, and it was only because we could prove that getting code execution on the host that made connections would require a long chain of exploits. Of course that machine did not have complete access to all of the git repos.
4) Not a lot of stuff really uses git internally. Operations staff and web developers prefer git strongly; so they use Git. But nearly every project uses Perforce. Good look getting a flow granted from ONBE to a perforce server. That will never happen.
Siege, like The Division, worked against Ubisoft internal IT policies to make the product even possible. (IT was punishingly rigid) but some contracts were unviolatable.
The last I heard, Siege had headed to AWS and had free dominion in their tenant, but it would need Ubiservices (also in AWS) and those would route through ONBE.
I’m not sure if much changed, since a member of the board is former Microsoft and has mandated a switch to Azure from the top… But I am certain that these policies would likely be the last to go.
Nothing highlights how pointless e-sports items are more than a real dollar value for a player base of all of them. The entire global GDP is as an order of magnitude roughly $100 trillion. So this $340 trillion figure is 3.4 times planetary total economic output - meaning the theoretical value of Rainbow Six cosmetics exceeds what the entire human civilisation produces in a year. Multiple times over. You'd be valuing pixelated gun attachments higher than annual agricultural output across all nations, all manufacturing, all services, everything.
I bet it appears unchallenged at some point in a court (or insurance) document though.
While I understand what you're saying, it's pretty clear what is meant is "$X worth at the price they currently sell for". When there's a story about an object in space made of gold worth 100s of trillians of dollars, nobody believes it would really sell for that much if we captured it and mined all the gold; because the value of gold would plummet based purely on it's existence.
But I agree with you that it would be put into a court document as "it cost us this much" for the full amount, vs the amount they were likely to ever be able to sell (and can't, now that everyone got it for free, so the value is $0)
The market cap is unambiguous, a more correct estimate of "how much to buy all the shares?" is situational and would just distract from getting the point across.
> Will the SECOND GROUP leak the source code? Is the SECOND GROUP telling the truth? Did the SECOND GROUP lie and have access to Ubisoft code this whole time? Was it MongoBleed? Will the FIRST GROUP get pinned for this? Who is this mysterious THIRD GROUP? Is this group related to any of the other groups?
This read to me like the end of a soap opera. Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Can’t help but laugh a bit. Not a great day for Ubisoft. Hopefully this didn’t ruin the holidays for too many employees. That would absolutely suck to get a call in for this.
> Will the SECOND GROUP leak the source code? Is the SECOND GROUP telling the truth? Did the SECOND GROUP lie and have access to Ubisoft code this whole time? Was it MongoBleed? Will the FIRST GROUP get pinned for this? Who is this mysterious THIRD GROUP? Is this group related to any of the other groups?
Find out in the next episode of... Tales from Cyberspace!
Streamer[1,2], formerly pro gamer[3]. “Creator” here is a clipping of “content creator”, an overtly ad-industry term that makes me a little sad(der) each time I hear it but is unfortunately universal nowadays, especially for people making videos (as we don’t really have another umbrella word for that).
This is like complaining all modern movies are superhero movies. It’s hard to think that unless you’re hardly looking at all, or have fairly narrow taste and aren’t counting most of the medium.
Those games have 100x to 500x smaller budgets than the AAA-games. Yes, they often have cute ideas, but, like a blockbuster movie, 99 times out of 100 you need a solid budget to make a solid movie/game.
> 99 times out of 100 you need a solid budget to make a solid movie/game.
Sure, but 1 in 100 still gets you dozens of games a year now. There's plenty of genres where the top titles are nowhere near an AAA budget: Hades 2, Silksong, and Claire Obscura all being popular examples from this year, and Factorio being another well known example around here. Even simpler games like Balatro and Vampire Survivor are plenty of fun for some people.
The biggest studios have rarely been the ones producing the best work - budget gets you fancy cinematics and a beautifully rendered 3D world, but it doesn't make level design go any faster. It could plausibly buy better writing, but that requires all the executives to back off and trust the creatives.
And for what it's worth, the big studios are all happy raking in money on mindless remakes - it keeps working for them.
The top of the list is Genshin Impact, although it'll probably be displaced by GTA6 soon - that one's estimated to come in at $1.5-2 million. There's multiple FPS games on there but there's some pretty expensive open-world games too.
I think he is saying where is the creativity in the AA+ space. Which still might be a lack of depth / breadth of search, or platform exclusive content. Not everyone can own all the consoles.
Maybe you can give a bit of context why you feel that way? Dropping a 2+ hour, <2000 views, 4chan video without context isn’t really the type of comment HN is looking for as far as I can tell
https://github.com/joe-desimone/mongobleed
https://beta.shodan.io/host/212.104.194.153
https://x.com/KingGeorge/status/2004902566434668686
It was doomed.
Here's the word on the internet streets:
- THE FIRST GROUP of individuals exploited a Rainbow 6 Siege service allowing them ban players, modify inventory, etc. These individuals did not touch user data (unsure if they even could). They gifted roughly $339,960,000,000,000 worth of in-game currency to players. Ubisoft will perform a roll back to undo the damages. They're probably annoyed. I cannot go into full details at this time how it was achieved.
- A SECOND GROUP of individuals, unrelated to the FIRST GROUP of individuals, exploited a MongoDB instance from Ubisoft, using MongoBleed, which allowed them (in some capacity) to pivot to an internal Git repository. They exfiltrated a large portion of Ubisoft's internal source code. They assert it is data from the 90's - present, including software development kits, multiplayer services, etc. I have medium to high confidence this true. I've confirmed this with multiple parties.
- A THIRD GROUP of individuals claim to have compromised Ubisoft and exfiltrated user data by exploiting MongoDB via MongoBleed. This group is trying to extort Ubisoft. They have a name for their extortion group and are active on Telegram. However, I have been unable to determine the validity of their claims.
- A FOURTH GROUP of individuals assert the SECOND group of individuals are LYING and state the SECOND GROUP has had access to the Ubisoft internal source code for awhile. However, they state the SECOND GROUP is trying to hide behind the FIRST GROUP to masquerade as them and give them a reason to leak the source code in totality. The FIRST GROUP and FOURTH GROUP is frustrated by this
Will the SECOND GROUP leak the source code? Is the SECOND GROUP telling the truth? Did the SECOND GROUP lie and have access to Ubisoft code this whole time? Was it MongoBleed? Will the FIRST GROUP get pinned for this? Who is this mysterious THIRD GROUP? Is this group related to any of the other groups?
Regarding the second group and access to source code; this is unlikely for a combination of four reasons.
1) The internal Ubisoft network is split between “player stuff” (ONBE) and developer stuff.
2) The ONBE network is deny by default, no movement is possible unless its explicitly requested ahead of time, by developers, in a formal request that must be limited in scope.
3) ONBE to “developer network” connections are almost never granted. We had one exception to this on the Division, and it was only because we could prove that getting code execution on the host that made connections would require a long chain of exploits. Of course that machine did not have complete access to all of the git repos.
4) Not a lot of stuff really uses git internally. Operations staff and web developers prefer git strongly; so they use Git. But nearly every project uses Perforce. Good look getting a flow granted from ONBE to a perforce server. That will never happen.
Siege, like The Division, worked against Ubisoft internal IT policies to make the product even possible. (IT was punishingly rigid) but some contracts were unviolatable.
The last I heard, Siege had headed to AWS and had free dominion in their tenant, but it would need Ubiservices (also in AWS) and those would route through ONBE.
I’m not sure if much changed, since a member of the board is former Microsoft and has mandated a switch to Azure from the top… But I am certain that these policies would likely be the last to go.
I bet it appears unchallenged at some point in a court (or insurance) document though.
But I agree with you that it would be put into a court document as "it cost us this much" for the full amount, vs the amount they were likely to ever be able to sell (and can't, now that everyone got it for free, so the value is $0)
The source leak is really interesting, though. We don't often get to see game source, and it often has surprises in.
This read to me like the end of a soap opera. Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Find out in the next episode of... Tales from Cyberspace!
https://x.com/vxunderground/status/2005008887234048091?s=20
So, the lead developer?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsHlla-bq0C_2OtEy8s2_Sg
[2] https://www.twitch.tv/kinggeorge
[3] https://liquipedia.net/rainbowsix/KingGeorge
WTF happened to non-shooter games? I am so bored of these FPS variations.
- Hexarchy / Rogue hex (Civ-like)
- The Last Caretaker
- Captain of Industry (factorio-like, was posted here on HN by dev awhile back)
- 9 kings
- Super Fantasy Kingdom
- Manor Lords
- Astronomics
- Heart of the Machine
Sure, but 1 in 100 still gets you dozens of games a year now. There's plenty of genres where the top titles are nowhere near an AAA budget: Hades 2, Silksong, and Claire Obscura all being popular examples from this year, and Factorio being another well known example around here. Even simpler games like Balatro and Vampire Survivor are plenty of fun for some people.
The biggest studios have rarely been the ones producing the best work - budget gets you fancy cinematics and a beautifully rendered 3D world, but it doesn't make level design go any faster. It could plausibly buy better writing, but that requires all the executives to back off and trust the creatives.
And for what it's worth, the big studios are all happy raking in money on mindless remakes - it keeps working for them.
The top of the list is Genshin Impact, although it'll probably be displaced by GTA6 soon - that one's estimated to come in at $1.5-2 million. There's multiple FPS games on there but there's some pretty expensive open-world games too.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXMcq_LJ8ro
FPS haven't been under the spotlights for a while, these days it's mostly MOBAs.