Developer Ubisoft Montréal is working on cross-progression and cross-platform play for Rainbow Six: Siege, though these features may only see the light of day on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Upon rolling out Ubisoft Connect in October of last year, Ubisoft explained the service would allow players to more readily access the publisher’s content across all platforms. The bridging of the gap included cross-save progression and crossplay, the company insisted.
Interestingly, Watch Dogs: Legion served as the first example of this unified vision, enabling cross-progression in the single-player campaign between a family of platforms - for example, PlayStation 4 players can manually transfer save data to their PlayStation 5. Ubisoft Connect’s cross-progression capabilities also apply to other recent titles from the publisher, namely Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising. For a while, it was unclear whether Ubisoft’s past projects would take advantage of the new features. Fans need not wonder any longer.
During a preview event for Rainbow Six: Siege’s forthcoming Operation Crimson Heist, game director Jean-Baptiste Halle informed PC Gamer of the studio’s efforts in developing cross-save and crossplay features. “We’re actively working on cross-progression and crossplay. Within the realm of consoles, I think it would be great if PlayStation and Xbox could play together.” Halle noted crossplay would prove most beneficial for reducing matchmaking wait times, particularly in territories where one platform significantly dominates the other in terms of users. The development crew at remains “skeptical” about consoles and PC players battling against each other online, though. There are “pros,” the game director acknowledged, but there exists a fair few “cons,” as well. “So, for this one, it’s too early for us to communicate,” Halle concluded.
It’s understandable that Ubisoft Montréal remains unsure about whether mixing console and PC communities is the best decision. The latter does typically hold the advantage when it comes to online play, which would undoubtedly cause headaches given the competitive nature of even the most casual Siege sessions. Still, cross-progression and crossplay eventually coming to console versions seems like a big step forward for a game that continues to find new ways of keeping its dedicated player-base invested.
Siege players are in for a new batch of content come March. In the middle of the month, the aforementioned Operation Crimson Heist will go live for Battle Pass owners; meanwhile, everyone else can jump in on March 30. Most notably, the new event is set to introduce the game's first openly gay character, an Attack Operator named Flores.
Rainbow Six: Siege is available to play now across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.
Source: PC Gamer