Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 Roadmap: Operators, maps, more unveiled

Here's what lies ahead for Rainbow Six Siege in 2021.

What you need to know

• Ubisoft has unveiled its Year 6 roadmap for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, detailing four new Operators and various map reworks headed to the title in 2021.
• The title has also changed how new Operators are introduced, now tied up in the premium Battle Pass, as the former Year Pass is retired.
• Rainbow Six Siege receives its next update this March, titled Operation Crimson Heist.

Ubisoft has unveiled its Year 6 plans for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, detailing another annual roadmap for its hit multiplayer shooter. Its competitive sandbox looks set to grow once again throughout 2021, with the publisher now talking about its next tri-monthly seasons, starting with its latest Operation Crimson Heist update.

Rainbow Six Siege retains its regularly scheduled free updates in Year 6, albeit with further changes in its delivery, compared to previous seasons. That includes putting the Battle Pass center stage, phasing out the Year Pass utilized for the past half-decade. Future Battle Passes will now have the Operator from launch day tied to the paid Premium track, rather than intertwined into a separate yearly membership. However, new Operators will also be obtainable with in-game currency, although with two weeks of exclusivity in each seasonal Battle Pass.

Year 6 will bring four new playable Operators in 2021, continuing a change introduced midway through Year 5, reducing the output to just one Operator per season. That starts with Flores and his explosive drone starting with Operation Crimson Heist, representing his home country of Argentina. Future seasons will include talent from Nakoda — indigenous people of North America — plus Croatia and Ireland.

Year 6 also brings the usual map reworks with each update, revisiting Border with Operation Crimson Heist, coupled with Favela and Outback in later seasons. Year 6 Season 3 will also feature multiple smaller map tweaks, although currently unspecified. Ubisoft states it still sees increased value with map reworks, with no plans for new maps in 2021.

The game will also play with some sizeable shakeups later in the year, designed to improve how the title plays over time. That includes changes for attackers in the preparation phase, where the team can now swap Operators after surveying the objective, pushing for more intelligence gathering. The support phase will also allow teams to utilize their drones and gadgets post-death, designed to keep teams engaged once wiped from play. Future changes will also improve the onboarding process for new players, although with specific features to be detailed at a later date.

Ubisoft now prepares to launch its next seasonal update, Operation Crimson Heist, with Test Server (TS) trials on PC from February 23, 2020, on PC. The seasonal will commence at a later date, likely mid-March, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Xbox consoles, and PC.