Ubisoft might have been infamous for “downgrading” their games on launch, but we might need to acknowledge their efforts on putting some of their games on longer support. With plenty of games now only having one year before a sequel with better features arrive, seeing games already a year or two and still kicking is refreshing. Such as Ubisoft’s open-world racer The Crew.
The latest to join the list of long support is Rainbow Six: Siege, the multiplayer shooter with a twist. It’s not a twitch shooter when it comes to movement- you move slowly and deliberately in small indoor environments- but it has a quick time-to-kill like one. Add destructible environments into the mix and some modern conventions like unique characters (operators) with unique abilities and a thriving e-sports following (three seasons strong, with leagues for both PC and console players played on the Xbox One) and you have a game with great potential.
At the end of the Rainbow Six Pro League Season 3 livestream, Ubisoft confirmed that Siege will continue to be supported with content for another year. Not only means it is adding new content- the latest one to hit, Red Crow, adds two new operatives and a map- but balance changes and fixes as well. It has been confirmed that caliber-based destruction (the bigger the ammo/caliber, the bigger holes it can puncture through destructible enthronements) will be coming soon as well to address balancing issues where it is not worth carrying heavier guns.
Siege had a rough launch. The open beta ended on release day, making the “beta” term questionable. Plenty of bugs and exploits were found, which is a big no-no for a competitive shooter. It has downgraded a bit from what we see in preview footage. And worst of all, we got this instead of an authentic single-player experience as part of the Rainbow Six counter-terrorist team battling against a terrorist group that has you question about your morality that was the cancelled Rainbow Six: Patriots. But what they have achieved now is remarkable, and it goes to show a long period of supporting a game can do wonders on how successful it could be.
At the end of the livestream, a new tournament was announced for Siege called The 6 Invitational, with open qualfiers for both PC and consoles. The event will take place in February at the developers’ home turf of Montreal, Canada where some new announcements might be happening there. Our smart money is that we will hear about the latest rollout of content for next year there.