Pixel P&L: Rainbow Six Siege Suffers Another Blow

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay in publishing this issue. It takes 5 minutes to read. If you only have one, here are the 5 most important things:

• Rainbow Six Siege suffers its second major hack in two weeks, with mass account bans hitting players.

• CD Projekt Red reportedly developed a new Witcher 3 expansion nine years after launch.

• Xbox console sales plunge nearly 40% in the UK during 2025 as Microsoft shifts multiplatform.

• FaZe Media loses the majority of top creators after failed contract negotiations with HardScope.

• Dubai establishes a Gaming Committee to become a global gaming hub by 2033.

Let's get into it.

Rainbow Six Siege Hit by Second Major Hack in Two Weeks

Players logging into Rainbow Six Siege on Sunday afternoon encountered an unwelcome surprise: mass account bans stemming from what appears to be another major security breach.

Ubisoft's multiplayer shooter is experiencing widespread issues, with players reporting unexpected 67-day bans for alleged harassment offenses. Content creator VarsityGaming was among those affected, discovering the ban upon login.

Ubisoft's status page shows degraded performance across all platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. Matchmaking, the in-game store, and authentication services are experiencing outages. "Some issues are being investigated," the company stated. "Thank you for your patience."

Over 1,200 players have filed reports on R6Fix, Ubisoft's official bug-tracking platform, escalating the issue to "Critical" status.

The incident follows a December 27 breach where hackers distributed billions in virtual currency and issued mass bans before Ubisoft froze servers. The company promised "extensive quality control tests" and rolled back fraudulent credits, though players who spent them faced no punishment.

Ubisoft has not yet commented on the latest breach.

The Witcher 3 Expansion Reportedly Planned for 2026 Release

CD Projekt Red is developing a new expansion for The Witcher 3, nearly nine years after the game's original launch, according to multiple industry sources.

Polish analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski from Noble Securities said he expects "the next paid add-on (DLC) for The Witcher 3" to arrive in May 2026. The claim aligns with earlier reports from Polish games insider Borys Nieśpielak, who told Eurogamer that several independent sources verified the project's existence.

Nieśpielak said the expansion is being developed by Fool's Theory, the studio currently remaking The Witcher 1 for CD Projekt.

CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz appeared to reference undisclosed content in a recent financial report, stating "there is a chance that new content hinted upon in recent calls and reports may see release in the coming year."

The company is simultaneously developing The Witcher 4, The Witcher 1 remake, and a multiplayer game within the franchise. The Witcher 3, released in 2015, has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.

⚡️Quick Bytes

Xbox Console Sales Plunge Nearly 40% in UK During 2025

Xbox console sales fell nearly 40% in the UK last year, marking "the worst year on record" for Microsoft's hardware in the region, according to data from The Game Business journalist Christopher Dring. The decline comes as Microsoft shifts focus toward multiplatform releases, bringing former Xbox exclusives like Gears of War and Forza Horizon to PlayStation. Xbox president Sarah Bond recently called console exclusivity "antiquated." PlayStation 5 sales also declined 19% in the UK, reflecting broader industry challenges.

Dubai Establishes Gaming Committee to Boost Industry Growth

Dubai has launched a Gaming Committee to advance its ambitions of becoming a global gaming hub by 2033. The committee will focus on strategic partnerships, training programs, and industry services aimed at attracting international talent and investment, according to the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre. The UAE now hosts over 350 gaming companies, with 260 focused on development. Since the Dubai Program for Gaming 2033 launched in 2023, 67% of gaming firms have established headquarters in Dubai, with more than 60 new companies formed recently.

FaZe Media Loses Majority of Top Creators After Contract Negotiations

FaZe Media lost most of its prominent creators last week following failed negotiations with principal investor Matt Kalish's new agency, HardScope. Creators including Adapt, JasonTheWeen, Stable Ronaldo, Lacy, Rage, and Silky departed after being given the option to join HardScope or go independent. Kalish told Bloomberg the FaZe Media business model was "unsustainable." FaZe co-founder Ricky "Banks" Bengtson criticized departing creators as ungrateful despite receiving company perks. FaZe Esports remains unaffected, as GameSquare retained 100% ownership of esports operations when selling FaZe Media to Kalish in March 2025.

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💡Did You Know

Ubisoft went to extraordinary lengths for authenticity in Far Cry Primal by creating an entirely fictional language called Wenja. When developers considered using Proto-Indo-European, a 6,000-year-old reconstructed ancient language, they determined it was still too modern for the game's 10,000 BCE Stone Age setting. A team of linguists, led by experts from the University of Kentucky, developed Wenja from scratch, drawing inspiration from even older linguistic patterns and prehistoric communication theories. The result was a fully functional constructed language with its own grammar, vocabulary, and phonetic rules that players could actually learn, adding unprecedented linguistic depth to the prehistoric gaming experience.

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