GameSpot reports that
Ubisoft is suing Optical Experts Manufacturing, alleging one of the employees of
the Charlotte, North Carolina-based disc replication company pilfered a copy of
Assassin's Creed and leaked it to the internet. The GameSpot story
indicates the game sold only 40,000 copies in the US through June, but
that over 700,000 pirated copies of the game were downloaded. They also relate
an odd-sounding claim that Ubisoft intentionally included a bug in the code that
would crash the game as a security measure, and that negative reviews of the
buggy leaked version harmed their reputation. The suit is said to be for
copyright infringement, breach of contract, and negligence, and Ubisoft is
asking for over $20 million in damages and legal fees. Here's the strange bit
about this supposedly intentional bug:
In addition to lost sales as a direct
result of piracy, the publisher also claimed its reputation was hurt by the leak
as well. Ubisoft says it included a bug in the pre-release Assassin's Creed for
security reasons that would cause the game to crash partway through. The bug was
supposedly removed from the retail edition, but a mix of negative reviews of the
leaked and bug-equipped pirated version of the game and legitimate reviews of
the retail edition created customer confusion and caused "irreparable harm" to
its reputation, Ubisoft said.