NEW YORK – This is one of those feel-good stories which only points out that the big boys are just as capable of screwing up as the little guy. Several different versions of this story appear on websites as varied as CNN and a wrestling site of all places.

Apparently games manufacturer Ubisoft created something called “Rainbow Six 3” from a Tom Clancy novel of the same name. It’s been a fairly popular game and has sold about 220,000 units since October on Xbox. However, it’s not available as of yet on PlayStation 2. The object of the game is, of course, to kill the bad guys with the latest military technology at your disposal. However, somewhere into the game, there’s a level set in a garage with posters featuring a “fictional” URL. Not fictional for long because an observant tech worker named Tony Ashcroft [now there’s some irony] was playing the game and checked to see if someone owned the URL. Ubisoft didn’t, so Ashcroft decided to buy it and use it as a link to porno.

Ubisoft is irked but, el tougho shitto, we say. Finders keepers. Word is it the URL will be excised when the game’s made available on PlayStation 2

Reports CNN: UbiSoft is understandably embarrassed and ticked off by the Web site’s content. The company was unaware of the situation until asked for comment and is in the process of looking into how to deal with it.

“It’s unfortunate that something like this happened,” said Ubisoft spokesperson Cassie Vogel. “Our focus is to make a game that people enjoy playing. It’s too bad that someone had to do something like this. … We do apologize if this has offended anybody.”

Ashcraft said he has no current plans to change the content of the site.