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Rainbow Six Siege Is Preparing for the GTA VI Effect
Few games are likely to escape the gravitational pull of GTA VI when Rockstar’s blockbuster arrives on November 19, and Ubisoft is already preparing Rainbow Six Siege for the inevitable disruption.
Speaking to The Game Business, Rainbow Six Siege Creative Director Joshua Mills acknowledged that Rockstar’s launch will affect games well beyond the open-world genre.
“We’ve got a massive launch coming with GTA,” Mills said. “It doesn’t matter what genre you’re in; you’re going to take a hit when that drops.”
Rather than treating that expected decline as a crisis, the Siege team is preparing for players to spend time elsewhere before eventually returning.
Ubisoft Expects Players to Leave and Come Back
Mills expects GTA VI to temporarily pull players away from Rainbow Six Siege, and admitted that members of the development team will probably be among them. For Ubisoft, the important part is recognising that such a decline should be temporary.
Mills said expectations need to remain realistic across both the development team and Ubisoft’s leadership, so a predictable fall in player numbers doesn’t cause unnecessary internal concern. His priority instead is serving the people who continue playing during that period.
“Our golden rule is to serve the players who stay like kings and queens,” Mills explained, adding that the team intends to “double down” rather than ease off when another major release dominates the market.
Rainbow Six Siege Season 4 Has Some Surprises Waiting
That philosophy matters because Season 4 is expected to arrive around the same time as GTA VI. Mills teased that the season will shift Rainbow Six Siege “in different ways”, while revealing that Ubisoft has deliberately held back several unannounced surprises intended to make an impact. He stopped short of explaining what those additions will be.
The timing means Ubisoft is not simply clearing the calendar and waiting for Rockstar’s game to pass. Instead, it appears willing to keep meaningful content flowing while accepting that attention will inevitably move elsewhere for a while.
Rockstar has confirmed that GTA VI launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. For an 11-year-old live-service game, that may be the more realistic strategy. Players will leave; Ubisoft expects many to return, and the job is to make sure Rainbow Six Siege remains worth coming back to when they do.
