Rainbow Six is one of the biggest franchises in gaming history. Now past its ten-year mark, we discuss what the future could hold for the Ubisoft title.
It has now been over ten years since Rainbow Six Siege hit gaming platforms. As it enters 2026, player numbers have begun to slide, though its core audience remains. This means casual players are moving on, and the franchise and its developers must make adjustments to bring them back. So what can we expect from Rainbow Six Siege going forward?
Changing to Vantage Studios
One shift over the last few months has been the movement to Vantage Studios. Owned by Tencent and Ubisoft, it is now taking on the burden of some of Ubisoft’s major titles, like Assassin’s Creed and, of course, Rainbow Six. The studio is split across several geographical locations, ranging from Barcelona to Quebec.
The idea for this change was twofold. Firstly, having a decentralized model would allow more flexibility. The idea was that it would let each studio pivot and give them more autonomy over their decisions, allowing them to change depending on market requests.
The second reason was due to Ubisoft’s poor financial performance the year before. Tencent now has a 1.16 billion euro stake in the venture, amounting to a 25% stake in the studio. It was hoped that this would result in a turnaround in fortunes.
Closure of Ubisoft Studios
At the moment, the magic change promised by the opening of Vantage has yet to come. In fact, Ubisoft recently felt the impact of a 33% share drop as it announced the closure of two studios and the cancellation of multiple major titles. The company said that this would “create the conditions for a return to sustainable growth”.
The only game announced as cancelled so far has been Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It has been said that one other was a mobile game, and four were unannounced. Of these, three were based on popular existing intellectual property. That means an updated Rainbow Six could have been shelved without fans even realising.
Onboarding New Players
Onboarding new players is another thing the development team must be wary of. The game has become increasingly hard over the past few years, with destructible environments adding another layer of tactics. Thus, it becomes hard for new players to onboard, leaving a core talent pool, as reflected in the figures, when the game becomes free to play.
Gaming is entering a new era, that is for certain, and it is more competitive. Players now want more information, looking at setups and data in a way sports teams analyze performance stats. As a gamer, you can find pro player data on setups.gg. This will break down games into the best settings, providing buyer’s guides and reviews, all driven by pro player data. This research can give a highly competitive edge.
This is something the developers themselves have acknowledged. In an interview with Checkpoint Gaming, director Josh Mills said, “I think the biggest thing, especially if you’re coming to Siege now, is to give yourself some grace. It’s a difficult game. It has a very high skill floor to start, which means you just have to be easy on yourself as you learn it and as you understand it. Focus on key things that you can get around, like pick an operator that you’re going to focus on.” To increase numbers, this is something the team must address. Yet to do so without dumbing the game down is the real challenge.
Clamping Down on Cheating
The biggest changes for the game over the last year have been to change the game to a free play model and add the X to the game’s name. Initially, this had the desired effect. According to Steam, player numbers went from 66,000 to 142,000. However, concurrent players have been on a downward slide since.
While people still enjoy the game, many are worried about the level of cheating in the game and the system. The team itself admitted they had not anticipated the surge in fraudulent play going to a free model would bring, and were caught offguard.
The response to this has been to go after those cheatmakers hard. This has included bringing in permabans for people who use these products. More in-depth solutions may involve going after companies that make these products. Activision has done so successfully in its pursuit of EngineOwning, and Bungie has done the same.
Vantage Studios has laid out Rainbow Six at the head of its pack. It named it alongside Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry as properties it wants to turn “into annual billionaire brands”. This means we may be seeing less output from the studio, but more of a concentration on its existing earners. This would make sense in a market that has increasingly turned to remakes and remasters to keep revenues shored over the last year.
