Gamer responsible for swatting Ubisoft Montreal in 2020 is sentenced

Montreal Gazette reports that the French player responsible for an alleged hoax call of hostage taking in the Ubisoft Montreal Office in November 2020, was sentenced in Paris this week to community service. Ouahioune’s three-year sentence includes punishment for several other charges related to a DDoS attack on a French government office and against Minecraft developer Mojang.

Yanni Ouahioune, a 22-year-old man from Montreal, falsely reported to the police that there were hostages in the Ubisoft Montreal office on November 13, 2020. An armored vehicle arrived with a tactical police unit and the entire building was evacuated. Other employees took refuge in barricaded rooms and on the building’s roof before discovering there was no threat. The Ubisoft Montreal building in the city’s Mile End neighborhood can house thousands of workers.

Documents from the court revealed later that Ouahioune had been a Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege player upset that he’d been banned from the game, allegedly more than 80 times. Later, it was revealed that he’d swatted the studio — the act of making a false emergency call to send a heavy police response to the victim’s address — two other times, The following are some examples of how to get started: Harassing other players the same.

Ouahioune used a computer in his parents’ home and routed the hoax calls through Russian servers, The Montreal Gazette said. Even though he was charged, Ouahioune requested that Canadian newspaper La Presse unban his Rainbow Six Siege account: “Can you say that I am kindly asking the Ubisoft team to ‘unban’ my account please,” Ouahioune said. “I have put over $1,500 in cosmetic enhancements in my profile.”

The Montreal Gazette reported that Ouahioune will be required to “compensate victims, undergo treatment for a mental health problem and either work or undergo training” as part of his sentence.

A Ubisoft representative acknowledged the court’s decision in a statement to Polygon, without commenting on the punishment itself. “In this trial we were committed to representing the interests of our employees who were affected by this false hostage taking alert at our Montreal studio,” they said. “It was important for us to denounce this violent and unacceptable incident. Out of respect for our employees who were affected by this event, we will not comment further.”