Update, February 19: Operation Chimera hits the Rainbow Six Siege test server today, as Ubisoft have detailed in a post to the game’s subreddit.
Operation Chimera will be live on the test server beginning today at 9:00 PT / 12:00 ET / 17:00 GMT. The test period will last until March 2 at 9:00 PT / 12:00 ET / 17:00 GMT.
Check out everything we know about Operation Chimera.
You’ll be able to play Outbreak “intermittently” during testing, but the new cooperative mode will be offline on occasion for patching. The R6fix bug report system be tested as part of all this, so Ubisoft want bug reports to be submitted through that site.
Year 3 content will be available in the live game beginning March 6 for pass owners, and March 13 for everyone else.
Original story, January 30: Today, Rainbow Six Siege community developer Craig Robinson revealed today that players will get a free Ash Sidewinder Elite set for playing a match ahead of the launch of Operation Chimera.
— Craig Robinson (@ItsEpi) January 30, 2018
You may (rightly) be wondering how that relates to the headline about Chimera’s release date. See, Robinson says that the Elite set will be available at the launch of Operation Chimera, and that it’ll be available as of March 6.
For the mathematically challenged: Chimera will be out March 6. That lines up with the timing we expected based on the upcoming reveal at the Six Invitational, with players who don’t own the Year 3 pass getting access a week later on March 13.
Ubisoft also revealed a few small details today about what to expect from the new operators coming as part of Chimera.