The successful tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Siege is set to become Free2Play – at least according to the developers. However, this might still take a while, as there are several hurdles to overcome.
This is what the developers say: Rainbow Six: Siege is currently doing great, according to the quarterly figures. Now, Game Director Leroy Athanassoff has commented on the plans to offer the game for free. According to him, this is a goal that the developers want to achieve:
I think that in the development team, we all want this at some point. We want the game to be accessible to everyone.
Leroy Athanassoff to PCGamer (translated)
However, the developers do not have the decision-making power over it. According to Athanassoff, it is a “corporate decision”. So it is not solely in the hands of the developers. However, there are still some things that need to be changed first.
Rainbow Six: Siege Free2Play – What are the issues?
What needs to change first: It is important, according to Athanassoff, that “certain features need to be ready for it to become a good and successful Free2Play game.” One of the most important changes that need to be made concerns smurfing.
Smurfing means that strong players create a new account to play against “noobs”. This way, they can achieve good ranks with better stats more quickly due to particularly strong performance. This has been a growing issue in Rainbow Six: Siege for quite some time.
For example, diamond players end up competing against bronze players. Another problem is that solo players have to face off against coordinated teams. This is also a significant disadvantage for them.
How is this going to be solved? Ubisoft has not yet revealed exactly how they plan to address this. However, in addition to the wins that primarily determine the MMR, they want to take other metrics into account, such as KDA. Competitors handle smurfing differently:
Athanassoff has already revealed that an option for solo players is planned, so they face full teams less often, especially in ranked matches.
When will it be ready? Athanassoff has not confirmed a date for the Free2Play version yet. Rainbow Six: Siege has just set a new record on Steam, which could argue both for an earlier Free2Play version (to attract even more players) and against it (to generate more sales).
For those who want to try the game anyway, they can do so at particularly low prices right now. Prices are on Steam and Uplay currently reduced by up to 67%. For example, the Deluxe Edition with all operators from Year 1 and Year 2 costs a little less than €10. The offers, according to Steam, run until March 26, 2020.
Next up, the second season of Year 4 will be released in March with Operation Void Edge. This brings the two new operators Iana and Oryx. However, there will also be interesting changes throughout the year that are intended to improve the game quality:
