With Year 6 Season 2 just around the corner, Rainbow Six Siege's competitive players and casual scene engaged.
As a live-service game with a large playerbase, content is king for Rainbow Six Siege, a defining entry in the long-running Tom Clancy series. The game has grown massively since its original 2015 launch, and players' eyes are always on the next operator. In May, Ubisoft revealed the game's North Star season entry, following details about the new defender, Thunderbird, leaking online. The First Nations helicopter pilot introduces the Kóna Station Rainbow Six Siege's balance sandbox, a turret that heals nearby teammates rather than targeting enemy operators.
As part of kicking off E3 2021 with Saturday's Ubisoft Forward stream, Rainbow Six Siege's North Star season gave players a new cinematic trailer for new operator Thunderbird. The dramatic 2D animated scene gives a slice of the new character's background, showing her bravery in the face of a literal grizzly bear.
As for what players on all platforms can expect in of gameplay, crossplay between PC, Google Stadia (an all-new streaming platform for the game), and Amazon Luna is coming to Rainbow Six Siege on June 30. Meanwhile, console players can prepare to play together starting next year, with PlayStation and Xbox crossplay coming in "early 2022." Also coming then will be full cross-progression across all Rainbow Six Siege platforms.
Thunderbird looks to shake up Rainbow Six Siege's gameplay by adding a new healer in the mix (who may ultimately become more popular than Doc), while crossplay and cross-progression are potentially an even bigger game-changers (if less immediate ones). The coming updates promise to connect Siege players, and the choice to separate console and streaming players and their console counterparts may seem reductive at first glance, but it's likely for gameplay reasons to keep the former crowd from having competitive advantages over the latter.
The tease of new Rainbow Six Siege content came alongside the gameplay and story reveal of Rainbow Six Extraction, which brings back Siege operators to fight an alien threat inspired by the competitive shooter's limited time Outbreak mode. It can likely be assumed that spin-off will also incorporate crossplay and cross-progression, and it's a wonder how deeply it will interface with Rainbow Six Siege when it launches later this year.
Rainbow Six Siege is available for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Amazon Luna, and it will launch on Google Stadia on June 30.
Source: Ubisoft
