As the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to affect industries around the world, game studios are increasingly moving staff to remote working until the situation improves. Grand Theft Auto V developer Rockstar and FIFA 20 publisher EA are just two examples, and now, the Rainbow Six Siege team at Ubisoft has announced it’ll now be working remotely – which could mean “smaller patches will be cut in the short term”.
That’s according to a statement posted to the FPS game’s official Twitter channel, which announces: “As news on COVID-19 develops, a work from home policy will be enacted for the health and safety of the Rainbow Six Siege team.
“While the day-to-day experience will remain unchanged on Rainbow Six Siege,” the studio explains, “we foresee that smaller patches will be cut in the short term. This will not impact upcoming content that is ready for release in the current update.” However, it seems the team is going to be monitoring how future content in the pipeline might be affected on an ongoing basis. It says it’ll keep the community posted on “any shifts in timelines that might occur.”
The studio thanks players for their patience and hopes everyone “stays safe during these tough times.”
A message from the Rainbow Six Siege team: pic.twitter.com/VltKGPxvVB
— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) March 18, 2020
So, it seems players can expect to see the Rainbow Six Siege Year 5 content already prepped and ready to go arrive in-game as expected, following the launch of Operation Void Edge just last week, but how the outbreak could impact on this year’s roadmap, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Ubisoft has also spoken about how the company is responding to the ongoing outbreak more widely in this piece about the games industry’s response to the coronavirus situation.
The WHO has information and guidance on the COVID-19 virus on its website, which you can find here, as well as advice for the public on how to stay safe.