Ubisoft Takes a Dagger to OEM Over Pirated Assassin’s Creed

Ubisoft’s award-winning new franchise, Assassin’s Creed, was leaked onto the internet 6 weeks prior to its PC version’s April release date. With the PC version’s leak, less than stellar review scores, and comparatively low sales, a pissed Ubisoft is now looking for (green) blood.

Ubisoft is taking Optical Experts Manufacturing to court to the tune of $10 million dollars over copyright infringement, negligence, and breach of contract (not $10 million total, but $10 million for each). Ubisoft claims that OEM failed to stop an employee from taking a disc home, where they then put it on the internet in late February.

As part of the contract, it was OEM’s job to put in place security measures that would help prevent a leak. Of course, (Ubisoft alleged) they have failed this. Ubisoft, using its internet ninjas (or should I say assassins?), tracked down the pirated game online and traced it to the home of an OEM employee (scandalous!).

Ubisoft says that the leaked version of the game caused low sales, a damaged reputation, and mass confusion. The PC version of Assassin’s Creed sold 40,000 copies by June, while the pirated copy was downloaded 700,000 times, which potentially cost them millions (of course, not everyone who downloads pirated games would have bought them, if that was the only way).

To top it off, the leaked version contained a bug that would crash the game in the middle of play. This bug was included to discourage a leak, but we see how much good that did. The retail version did not have the bug, but when a number of reviews based on the buggy pirated version came out, it caused mass confusion and hurt Ubisoft’s reputation (and feelings).

I wouldn’t worry about Ubisoft, though. They’ve probably got Altair and Sam Fisher on the case and, if worse comes to worse, the Prince could just go back in time to prevent this thing from even happening.