Ubisoft have revealed their future plans for Rainbow Six Siege, showcasing a 2021 roadmap for their flagship first person shooter. Expect new Operators, new maps, and some serious core gameplay changes over the next twelve months. Here’s a succinct summary of what’s in the pipeline.
Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 will officially kick off next month with the release of Crimson Heist. Y6S1 will introduce the first of four new Operators joining the game’s ever-growing roster of playable recruits, Flores. Ubisoft will be adding one new Operator per season and although they’ve yet to reveal all the details, we at least know which nationality these newcomers will fall under.
Season 2 will introduce an indigenous North American Operator from Nakoda, followed by a Croatian Operator for Season 3, and finally an Irish Operator for Season 4. Judging by their previous track record, it’s likely that two of their playable characters will be female and the other two male, split evenly between the attacker and defender teams.
If you were hoping for new maps to be added to the current rotation then you’re fresh out of luck. Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 won’t feature any additional maps though Border, Favela, and Outback are all due to receive substantial reworks. Meanwhile, during Y6S3, Ubisoft plan to carry out some smaller upgrades and renovations to certain, unannounced maps.
Besides new and reworked Siege content, Year 6 will also feature new event and arcade playlists which also means a bevy of new time-limited customisation options for your Operators. Speaking of which, Ubisoft are improving the ways in which you can outfit your favourite characters by mixing and matching outfit and headgear sets, as well as victory dances.
Speaking of which, there will be a new Resident Evil crossover skin for Sophia as she attempts her best Jill Valentine cosplay. Another Resi skin is due to be revealed soon – our money is on Leon Kennedy though we’d be equally as thrilled to see a Lady Dimitrescu outfit, if only to see a 9ft Operator take to the field.
Perhaps more interesting is Ubisoft’s collaboration with the ever-energic Ikumi Nakamura, formerly of Tango Gameworks. She has been working on a number of special skins for various Six Operators some of which include Dokkaebi and Echo. These costumes are clearly horror-themed though aren’t being saved for a Rainbow Six Siege Halloween event – the first two Ikumi Nakamura skins will actually be coming in Crimson Heist.
You can read more here about our Crimson Heist preview which includes a deep dive on upcoming Operator, Flores, as well as the Border map rework.
Rainbow Six Siege Y6S1 will also introduce the Gonne-6, a secondary weapon that can be used to removed any defensive gadget from play. The only rub is that it has a single shot – miss your target with the Gonne-6 and you’ve wasted a golden opportunity to help your team.
The Gonne-6 is one of several features Ubisoft are including to help balance Siege by giving the attacking team more of an advantage. During the Year 6 panel, the game’s developers didn’t even try to hide the fact that the meta has dramatically shifted in favour of defenders with recent updates. Creating parity is a core focus for Rainbow Six Siege Year 6.
As such, during the prep phase, attackers will now have the ability to repick their Operators even after the match has started. During this first phase they’ll be able to scout a map using drones, gaining intel that will then allow them to adjust their team composition accordingly.
Ubisoft also want to give players more to do in influencing the outcome of a match. They have revealed plans to let players control any deployed gadgets, even after they’ve been killed during a match. It sounds like a simple reshuffle, though one that could have a huge effect on how rounds play out. For example, you can pilot Echo’s Yokai drone or Maestro’s Evil Eye turret.
Player reputation is another system Rainbow Six Siege players can look forward to. Unfortunately, as with any online game, Siege attracts toxic players who Ubisoft are looking to sanction and rehabilitate with new incoming measures. The reputation system will assign players a rank between 0 and 4 – negative, neutral, and positive. Where negative rep players will find themselves sanctioned and on the receiving end of in-game messages, positive players will be rewarded for their conduct.
On the tech side of things, Siege is shoring up its defences against DDoS attackers while improving overall connectivity and reducing the game’s file size. By smartly shrinking textures and putting customisable items on their servers, Ubisoft are hoping to free up space and make sure FPS fans keep Siege installed on their consoles.
Other additions include a new “streamer mode” which will give content creator a way of hiding their match info when jumping into the matchmaking queue, helping to prevent them from being “stream sniped”.
Finally, the Rainbow Six Siege Year Pass has been removed. Instead, Siege will focus primarily on the battle pass for each season with those who buy a battle pass gaining instant access to the latest Operator. Ubisoft assured us that the price of the battle pass won’t be going up.
Oh, and one more thing, reworks. We’re still waiting for exact details from Ubisoft though we do know that several Operators will receive major tweaks including Goyo, Melusi, Mira, Maestro, Fuse, and Finka.
There’s a lot to digest there. From what’s already been shown and discussed by Ubisoft, 2021 is set to be interesting year for Siege and one that could revolutionise the game for existing players.
