The 2015 release of Rainbow Six: Siege was a triumphant return for Ubisoft to the competitive shooter landscape. Â While previous generations saw the likes of Ghost Recon and previous Rainbow Six titles ruling the roost of competitive shooters, they took a backseat to Activision’s Call of Duty and EA’s Battlefield games.
A year and a half later, many are still playing Rainbow Six: Siege. Â This is largely attributable to how Ubisoft handled downloadable content for the game. Â They did two things with Rainbow Six: Siege that has kept the game fresh. Â One, they gave out downloadable content for free in the form of new characters “operators” to use, and new maps with each update. Â Second, they’ve tuned and tweaked each operator on a regular basis to keep the game balanced.
So with Year Two of Rainbow Six: Siege currently underway, just how long does Ubisoft plan to keep this up? Â Apparently they could go for “10 more years,” according to a recent interview between Ubisoft Montreal Creative Director, Xavier Marquis.
Marquis spoke with Finder in a recent interview about future DLC plans, and it sounds like they have a lot. Â “This is what keeps the game cool,fresh, and more meaningful,” says Marquis. Â I think we have 10 more years at least of new operators to come… I’m super confident of how much we can further push the number of operators. Â And to be very honest, a lot of us are super fans of those community multiplayer games that you tent to play for long periods of time.”
Ubisoft seems to have struck a nice balance with the downloadable content for Rainbow Six: Siege, ultimately keeping players engaged for longer than the average shooter. Â Their strategy has been to give players two options. Â Either pony up for a Season Pass that would allow you a week’s long early access to the characters, or wait with the rest of the player base to unlock them for free by using in-game currency.
