Ubisoft recently announced that its proprietary games subscription, Ubisoft+, is coming to Xbox, but it won't be included as part of an Xbox Game Pass subscription. The collaboration between Ubisoft and Microsoft is bearing other fruit as well - Rainbow Six Extraction will be available to Game Pass subscribers when it launches on January 20, 2022. Even though Ubisoft's newest AAA release is getting the Game Pass treatment from day one, Ubisoft+ is oddly excluded from the popular service which has already brought similar subscriptions into the fold.
Ubisoft+ is practically an all access pass to every game released by the publisher. For $15 per month, Ubisoft+ lets subscribers play all Ubisoft games in their premium versions on launch, as well as the company's expansive backlog. A higher subscription tier bundles it with cloud gaming services Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, which seems odd now that Ubisoft+ isn't included in Game Pass. For instance, subscribing to Game Pass Ultimate, the service's highest tier, also grants all the benefits of Xbox Live Gold and EA Play, which is essentially Electronic Arts' version of Ubisoft+.
To be fair, Ubisoft+ seems to be a good deal for anyone who consistently plays Ubisoft's games, especially since the premium editions usually include all DLC and post-launch expansions. Ubisoft must feel that, at least for now, there's more money to be made in the Ubisoft+ platform remaining its own product. So far, Xbox has been the industry leader in gaming subscriptions, with PlayStation Spartacus hoping to compete with Game Pass eventually, so it isn't really surprising to see Microsoft welcome another subscription into its ecosystem. On the other hand, Rainbow Six Extraction is coming to Game Pass, which rather feels like the opposite of the developer's confidence in Ubisoft+.
Ubisoft Doesn't Seem Confident In Rainbow Six Extraction
The move to offer Rainbow Six Extraction on Xbox Game Pass day one is great for consumers; those already subscribed won't have to pay anything extra to try the new co-op shooter. This is, however, just the most recent move in Ubisoft making Extraction more accessible. What was expected to be a fully priced AAA game was reduced down to $40, and it was announced that the game would include two Buddy Passes so that a buyer's two friends could try Extraction for a limited time. Following Rainbow Six Siege's lengthy success, Extraction already had a tepid reception from potential players, and all these price reductions seem like an indication that Ubisoft either doesn't expect much out of its next game, or is worried about getting people to try it.
Although only Ubisoft knows its own motivations, the price drop, Buddy Pass, and Game Pass inclusion read like an admission that Ubisoft knows Extraction won't perform well financially. The Tom Clancy's brand has been dissolving in recent years, and Extraction is just the latest evidence of that. Only Siege players are interested in the game's operators, and a small minority of them are likely to also be interested in using those characters to fight off an invasion of alien parasites. Rainbow Six Extraction will certainly get a boost on launch day because of its spot in Xbox Game Pass, but Ubisoft's faith in its own brand appears to lie more in Ubisoft+.