A reference to Ubisoft's canceled Rainbow Six: Patriots has been spotted in Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Patriots would have been released on PS3 and Xbox 360 but the game was dropped in favor of Rainbow Six: Siege. The Rainbow Six series has been going strong since 1998 and Patriots would have been the 10th game in the main series line. While Siege was met with positive reviews, many fans were left wondering what could have been if Patriots was released.

The Rainbow Six games are based on Tom Clancy's novel of the same name which was released in 1998. The video games center around a counter-terrorist group which travels around the world on missions. Similarly, there is another video game series called Ghost Recon, which is like Rainbow Six, but with a different storyline and setting. Ghost Recon started around the same time as Rainbow Six and is also developed by Ubisoft. Since 2001, Ubisoft has come out with 11 main titles for the Ghost Recon series. Thankfully, since Ubisoft develops both sets of games, they can do crossover missions like they did in Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

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Thanks to YouTuber Gaming Prime, the reference to Rainbow Six: Patriots can now be seen by all fans and players. The name-drop can be heard during a new update when two characters are talking about the Rainbows and the Ghosts working together. The conversation continues to lead to a discussion about a mission that "went south" called "Operation Patriots". The character Cav immediately becomes aggravated and demands to know how you know about the mission saying that the failed mission is very classified. The video can be seen in full above.

Fans were no doubt disappointed to hear the news of Patriots being canceled. Ubisoft had made serious progress with the game, even releasing gameplay footage in 2011. Concerns for the game continued to rise as many people were taken off of the development team but Ubisoft insisted the game would still be released for next-gen consoles. In 2014, Ubisoft announced that Patriots would not be released but they were starting fresh with a new game called Rainbow Six: Siege. 

Siege continues to grow with over 20 million players now playing the game thanks to Ubisoft routinely releasing new expansions for Rainbow Six and crossover missions for Ghost Recon, ensuring both games will live on for several years. Patriots would have been based in New York City and centered around terrorists called True Patriots who are motivated by the crime on Wall Street. While Patriots will never see the light of day, the reference in Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a fun nod to the unreleased game.

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Source: Gaming Prime