In a move that seemed almost inevitable in 2019, Rainbow Six Siege is finally jumping on the battle pass train. The battle pass will give players a new progression track to unlock cosmetics, renown boosters, and new operator lore.
Siege's battle pass is rolling out in two phases, starting with a free, 7-day pass in Ember Rise named "Call Me Harry." It sounds like a testing ground for Ubisoft as it prepares for its "full-fledged" battle pass premiering in Season 4 later this year.
"Our intentions behind it is to reward players more than ever playing our game, and also to provide a progression they can work through whenever they're playing." said presentation director Alexander Karpazis in an announcement video.
Unlike existing battle passes that require players to complete specific challenges to proceed, it seems like Siege's pass will only judge progression by how much you play. Every match, you build up "Battle Points" that get you closer to the next tier.
Cosmetics are fine, I guess, but I'm excited by the potential to tell new in-lore stories with Siege's operators. "The Battle Pass is a great opportunity for us to develop our universe," said Siege narrative director Emmanuel Bajolle in the video. Siege lore can be pretty cheesy, but operators are cool and I like reading about their out-of-game interactions in bios.
Karpazis promised that they'd have much more to share at the next season reveal, and "much much" more to say at the Six Invitational 2020. Today, Ubi also blew the lid on Operation Ember Rise, which brings two new operators and a beautiful rework of Kanal.
