Rainbow Six Siege turns 9 years previous in 2024, however in dwell service phrases, it is extra like 90. When Ubisoft’s 5v5 FPS first launched in 2015, Overwatch was nonetheless months away, PUBG did not exist, and Fortnite was a zombie recreation we thought may by no means come out. Siege has been doing the dwell service recreation longer than the time period has been part of our vernacular.
That makes Siege one of many oldest video games usually receiving content material updates. Ubisoft nonetheless plans to assist Siege by Yr 9 and past, however the recreation’s many revisions and rising age of its engine has led longtime gamers to ask an affordable query as of late: Does Siege want a sequel?
The reply, in line with Siege inventive director Alexander Karpazis, is an emphatic no.
“I can confidently say that we now have most likely the most effective engines on this planet on the subject of dwell PvP shooters,” Karpazis stated in a gaggle interview held on the Siege Invitational 2024 in Brazil. “The group is unimaginable, and we now have an enormous engine pipeline group that each single month incrementally improves the best way that we are able to ship content material quicker, extra sturdy, extra secure, hopefully as a lot as potential.”
Siege’s engine, Ubisoft Anvil, is a frequent goal of derision when issues come up in-game. As new seasons introduce contemporary batches of bugs, many gamers wish to blame previous know-how, characterizing Siege as a creaky previous constructing held collectively by duct tape and stubbornness. The reality is that Siege has been buggy for so long as I’ve performed it, and in my expertise is extra secure now than it was in its early days. Nonetheless, Siege is displaying its age in different methods, like its useful however unremarkable graphics.
To Karpazis, who joined the Siege group in 2018 as presentation director earlier than ascending to the lead position in 2022, the notion that Ubisoft ought to spend money on a Siege sequel with a brand new engine shouldn’t be solely pointless, however doubtlessly an enormous mistake.
“The thought of switching engines to one thing that may be off-the-shelf prepared merely does not reply the wants of a very aggressive and demanding recreation like Siege,” he stated. “I am not going to call names, however you see video games that did undergo sequels and simply fully drop the ball as a result of they should remake each single factor that they did in that first recreation.”
Karpazis compares the apply to dropping your homework after which having to redo it, besides “you will by no means [make it] precisely the identical approach” as the unique.
“It may be actually irritating, actually pricey, and ultimately, it does not even offer you something that was a profit. If what you need to start with, and also you construct it up, that’s the place we see success. And that’s the place we all know we are able to take Siege into the long run.”
Whereas an engine swap might convey a number of apparent enhancements—fashionable graphics, for one—Ubisoft hasn’t spent 9 years standing nonetheless. The studio has demonstrated a formidable willingness to enhance or reinvent main facets of Siege.
Over 9 years, Ubisoft has overhauled the whole lot from Siege’s gunplay, operators, and maps to its guidelines, modes, and consumer interface. Siege weapons do not behave in 2024 like they did in 2015. Almost each map that launched with the sport has been changed with reworked layouts that replicate thousands and thousands of gamers’ value of suggestions. Trendy Siege has match replay, in-game reporting, 50 extra operators, a strong capturing vary, arcade mode, crossplay, cross-progression, an Apex-inspired ping system, a reimagined tutorial, AI bot coaching—options that may’ve been pitched for a sequel in a extra conventional improvement cycle.
Maybe Siege is due for an engine improve, presumably to a more recent model of the Anvil engine that additionally powers fashionable Murderer’s Creed video games, however even this comes with potential downsides. Extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown has plans to improve to a more recent model of its CryEngine, and when it does, it will finish assist for 2 platforms.
For some video games, a clear break with new know-how is definitely worth the sacrifice. I am unsure Siege is a type of video games. Karpazis certain does not suppose so.
“We actually do know that it is a recreation that may final perpetually with the folks and the expertise and the instruments that we now have as we speak.”