As Rainbow Six Siege approaches its 10th year on sale, Ubisoft has recently announced its plans for a new membership that fans aren’t happy about.
At the BLAST R6 Major Manchester 2024 tournament, Ubisoft revealed its latest update to the popular competitive first-person shooter. While Rainbow Six Siege may be almost a decade old, regular updates and loyal players have kept the game going. Earlier this March, the game set a new All-Time Concurrent Player record on Steam, amassing almost 201,000 players.
The Year 9, Season 2 update called Operation New Blood was revealed during the BLAST R6 event, that took place 16th – 26th May 2024. The update includes:
- A complete rework of the ‘Recruit’ operator
- Fenrir Operator to lose one F-Natt Dreadmine (down to four), and they will no longer be bulletproof
- Solis’ SPEC-IO sensor range to be reduced
- Various balance changes
- Various cosmetic items
- No new operator (with Premium Battle Pass holders to receive 1x other operator currently unlocked, or 600 R6 credits)
The addition that has received criticism is Ubisoft’s new membership that is coming with the newest season.
The Rainbow Six Siege Membership gives “active membership holders” access to “monthly drops of exclusive content that includes time-limited gear, animated Legendary skins, 10x Battle Pass level skips, a Bravo pack, and access to the Premium Battle Pass.”
This Membership will cost $9.99/month (£8/€9.00) or $79.99/year (£60/€74.00).
When the announcement was made fans could be heard booing, and some even began to chant ‘greedy bastards’ at Ubisoft’s new approach to making additional money from its game.
Fans on Reddit have pointed out that the game already costs money to buy, and there are many microtransactions already within the online store, on top of the Premium Battle Pass itself. Some users on Reddit have even gone so far as to suggest boycotting the new R6 Membership.
Ubisoft has yet to comment on the widespread criticism, but it surely isn’t what they anticipated.
The first R6 Membership is set to come out on June 28th 2024, and ‘Early Adopters’ can benefit from a bonus of an Epic Ash bundle and 600 R6 credits. If you purchase the Membership, note that you have to actively log onto your account each month to “claim the rewards”.
Rainbow Six Siege is available to play on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Words by Joseph Pearson
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