During its almost five years on the market, Rainbow Six Siege has seen some massive changes. Dozens of new operators, several new maps, and tweaks to the base gameplay have all been implemented to improve the overall experience. Ubisoft recently revealed a bit more about the direction the game is heading, and it seems that these big adjustments to the game are going to continue — but in a slightly different format.

Rainbow Six Siege’s updates are broken down into four seasons that span an entire year. Each season typically sees the release of two new operators and a brand-new map. Lately, however, that has started to change. Instead of releasing a new map, Ubisoft would instead rework existing maps. That trend seems to be spreading, as it has been revealed that Year 5 will only bring six new operators as opposed to the eight seen in previous Years.

The pattern continues into Year 6, which will only include four new characters. Thankfully, Ubisoft has a good explanation for the change. The hope is that by taking the focus away from creating new operators, the team can instead work on “gameplay improvements,” such as reworking older characters or gameplay mechanics.

As the operator count is already over 50, this shift seems like a smart move. Players already have an incredibly diverse cast of characters to chose from, and there’s an operator for every playstyle. Beyond that, Ubisoft has found that players are more receptive to map reworks than they are new maps, as they only have to relearn small portions of the level as opposed to learning an entirely new layout.

That logic could carry over to how players view operators. Instead of learning how to play a new role, they will just have to learn about a few tweaks to their favorite characters. As new operators are introduced, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure they are all properly balanced.

Focusing on the plethora of content already available in Rainbow Six Siege and fine-tuning it should allow for a more well-rounded experience. It could also mean that some of these older operators that don’t see any playtime could become relevant again. Who knows, maybe Castle and Tachanka will be playable come 2021.

Source: VG24/7

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