The PC version of Assassin’s Creed was released in more ways then one, it would seem. There was the official version published by Ubisoft in April, and then there was the stolen version, in February.
Ubisoft claims that Optical Experts Manufacturing, the company that was responsible for producing copies of Assassin’s Creed, violated security measures that led to a copy of the game being stolen. An employee took a copy home with him and then promptly posted it on the Internet for all to download for free.
The publisher says that Optical Experts Manufacturing was guilty for "an extraordinary breach of trust and gross negligence." The employee who pilfered the game, released it on the Internet six weeks before the official version hit store shelves.
How did it happen? Optical Experts admitted that it ignored a host of security measures that could have stopped the software leak. Ubisoft said that the upload was tracked to the home of an Optical Experts employee. A copy of the stolen game was found at the alleged thief’s home.
Ubisoft is claiming that more than 700,000 downloads of Assassin’s Creed occurred from the illegally uploaded game and that this breach of security has cost the company millions of dollars in sales. In addition, the leaked copy had a crash bug in the game, which caused a number of negative reviews and hence, caused damage to Ubisoft’s reputation. The bug was fixed before the official release date in April.
The lawsuit against Optical Experts Manufacturing will total about $30 million for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and negligence.
[via gamespot.au]
