Rainbow Six Siege is about to enter Year 5, and Ubisoft has confirmed a bit of information stemming from an early leak: there will be only six operators this year instead of the usual eight. That decision has proven controversial among the Siege community, but the developers say the cutback is to focus on features that will more broadly impact the game.
“We are investing our resources on building more features and systems that will impact every player in every match,” according to game director Leroy Athanassoff. Ubi-Fanch adds on Reddit that “the Year 5 Pass reflects this direction focused on features that benefit all players, not just those playing the newest operators. It will lead to additional content for all players, such as free events, extensive reworks, and other core gameplay features.”
Exactly what form those new features will take – here’s hoping that Tachanka rework will be among them – will be clarified as part of the full Year 5 reveal at the Six Invitational in February. We’ll also see how that change in direction “leads into Year 6 and beyond” as part of the event.
The comments here echo those Ubisoft made when the lead developers of Rainbow Six Siege shifted. At the time, Athanassoff said “if you look at player experience, we need to stop thinking about exclusive features and start implementing inclusive features instead. What I mean is that we need to deliver content that will impact every player and the whole community.”
For details on everything we know about Rainbow Six Siege Year 5, you can follow that link. We’ll get a whole lot more detail in the week leading up to the Six Invitational, and the full reveal should take place on February 16.