Ubisoft has shared more details about when Rainbow Six Siege will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and how they’ll work with existing versions of the game. Game director Leroy Athanassoff told WindowsCentral that Rainbow Six Siege will be available for both next-generation consoles at launch, or at least that is the current “target.”
It makes sense that Siege will be available on the new consoles from day one, given Sony and Microsoft have already come forward to say the PS5 and Xbox Series X will support PS4 and Xbox One games, respectively. The Xbox Series X will also play Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, but Sony has yet to clarify its position on backwards compatibility beyond the confirmation that the system will play PS4 games.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X are scheduled to launch in Holiday 2020, so fans can expect Rainbow Six Siege to be playable on these systems around then.
Also in the interview, Athanassoff said there will be cross-generation multiplayer support, which will connect the PS4 and PS5 and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X communities. The game director said Ubisoft is working with Sony and Microsoft to allow cross-platform play between PS4 and Xbox One, but the decision will come down to the two hardware-makers.
“This is more a discussion between Microsoft and Sony,” Athanassoff said. “We would love to be fully cross-play–have Xbox players matchmaking against the PlayStation players. We are ready to support that. And hopefully, this will happen because as I said, it’s a general move in the industry, and there is nothing that can prevent that. It’s just a matter of time before it happens.”
One feature that Rainbow Six Siege will probably not introduce is cross-play between console and PC, due to the advantage that PC players would have with keyboard and mouse controls. If the game ever does add this, it would be an opt-in feature, Athanassoff said.
“If you want to match with these players, to have better matchmaking, or whatever, and get your ass kicked by a keyboard and mouse, up to you,” he said.
With 50 million registered accounts, Rainbow Six Siege is still going very strong, nearly five years after it came out in 2015. Ubisoft has supported the game with new content and update on a regular basis, and this includes a big change to the Tachanka operator.
Instead of releasing a sequel, Ubisoft plans to support Rainbow Six Siege with the goal of creating 100 more operators over the next decade.
The next Rainbow Six game is Rainbow Six: Quarantine, which is a three-player tactical co-op shooter that’s in development for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, in addition to current-generation consoles.
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