The player responsible for a 2020 swatting incident at Ubisoft Montreal has been sentenced in French court to three years of community service, the Montreal Gazette reports. The player called in a hostage situation at the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry studio leading to a lockdown and raid by police, all seemingly because he had been banned from Rainbow Six Siege dozens of times.
The 22-year old gamer, Yanni Ouahioune, who went by Y4nnOXX online, called in the threat on November 13, 2020, leading to an hours-long showdown where developers at Ubisoft and others at the Montreal building that houses it sought refuge in fear that an armed shooter was loose. It wasn’t until later that the source of the emergency call was revealed to be a hoax.
“One of the worst experiences of my life,” tweeted one current Ubisoft developer following the news of Ouahioune’s sentencing.
According to a 2021 report by La Presse, the angry gamer attacked the company because he had been banned from Rainbow Six Siege roughly 80 times. “I have put over $US1,500 ($2,082) in cosmetic enhancements in my profile,” he claimed at the time. Ouahioune also recently pleaded guilty to a DDoS attack against a French government office and threats made against Minecraft maker Mojang.
He will reportedly be required to compensate victims in some way and undergo treatment as part of his community service sentence. It was revealed during the court proceedings that Ouahioune was receiving psychiatric treatment prior to the Ubisoft swatting and other incidents.
“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,” Magali Valence, director of external communication for Ubisoft Montreal, told the Montreal Gazette. “It was important for us to denounce this violent and unacceptable incident.”
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