50 Fun Facts About Rainbow Six Siege

Which studio developed Rainbow Six Siege?

Barcelona, Toronto, Kyiv, Shanghai and Chengdu studios assisted, and Blue Byte in Germany helped with post-launch content.

Siege was the successor to which cancelled, story-focused game in the series?

After Patriots was scrapped for technical shortcomings, Ubisoft assembled a team of just 25 people to reboot the series.

In which month and year was Siege first released for PS4, Windows and Xbox One?

PS5 and Xbox Series versions followed in December 2020 and Stadia in June 2021.

Which Ubisoft technology powers Siege's destructible environments?

The game runs on the AnvilNext 2.0 engine.

Which of these was NOT one of the five base Counter-Terrorism Units at launch?

The launch CTUs were the FBI SWAT, SAS, GSG-9, Spetsnaz and GIGN, each with four operators.

How many operators did each launch CTU have?

They were split between attackers and defenders; the flexible 'Recruit' had no unique gadget.

What does the 'Recruit' operator give up in exchange for a more flexible loadout?

Recruits appear in the game's story too, training against the White Masks.

How many single-player missions make up the 'Situations' tutorial series?

Critics found the mode's narrative thin; the campaign was abandoned to focus everything on multiplayer.

How long does a ranked round last?

Casual rounds run three minutes thirty; players who die cannot respawn until the round ends.

What is the in-game currency earned at the end of matches called?

Ranked matches offer the biggest multiplier, and boosters can raise the rate for 24 hours or more.

Which real 1980 event inspired the map Consulate?

The team also studied the 1977 Lufthansa Flight 181 hijacking and the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis.

Who composed Siege's music, having also scored earlier Rainbow Six games and Far Cry?

Leon Purviance assisted on the score.

Which esports company did Ubisoft partner with to build Siege as a competitive game?

Their first meeting was in late 2013, and ESL advised on balance before launch.

Which European team won the first season of the Rainbow Six Pro League in May 2016?

They beat GiFu in the final; Xbox One tournaments were dropped for Year Two.

How big was the prize pool at the Six Invitational 2020, the largest in Rainbow Six history?

Spacestation Gaming took the $1 million top prize among 16 teams.

The Six Invitational was held in which city until it went international in 2021?

That is home to the Ubisoft studio that makes the game.

Roughly how many registered players had Siege reached across all platforms by December 2020?

Initial sales were weak; the free-DLC 'games as a service' model turned it around.

After which summer 2016 DLC did the player base jump 40 percent, passing 10,000,000 registered players?

That season also added the Tactical Realism mode.

Which MOBA inspired the decision to keep adding operators for esports variety?

Such games often have 80 to 100 playable characters.

In the story, who reactivates the Rainbow program and takes the codename 'Six'?

She is played by Angela Bassett; she later leaves to become Secretary of State.

What is the terrorist group that Team Rainbow fights in the early years' story?

They launch a chemical attack on Bartlett University, which the recruits are sent to stop.

Who becomes 'Six' in 2019 after being recommended by the outgoing leader?

Harry invites the private military company Nighthaven into Rainbow to keep an eye on its operatives.

Who founded the private military company Nighthaven?

Ash was injured in the 2021 tournament finals through Kali's actions, sparking a public feud.

'Deimos', the rogue former Rainbow operative who kills Harry, is eventually unmasked as whom?

He had betrayed and killed a squadmate in 2012 and been declared killed in action.

Which crossover operator from another Tom Clancy series helps apprehend Deimos?

Doc, Mira and Rook are with him for the arrest.

Which faction destroys Hereford Base after infiltrating it disguised as recruits?

They break Deimos out of prison; the attack is only 'Phase One' of his plan.

The operator Rauora, revealed at the Six Invitational 2025, comes from which city?

Fans noticed her March 15 birthday matched the date of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.

'Outbreak', the co-op event against alien-infected mutants, was exclusive to which season?

Three-player teams fought AI-controlled infected; the idea grew into the spin-off Rainbow Six Extraction.

In which month and year was the spin-off Rainbow Six Extraction released?

It featured Siege's characters against the alien parasite threat.

What were the loot boxes introduced in January 2018 called?

They were unlocked with R6 credits and, unlike Battlefront II's, drew little backlash.

Where were the regulations Ubisoft cited in 2018 for briefly removing references to death, sex and gambling?

Community pressure forced the reversal on November 21.

Which mobile game did Ubisoft sue over as a near-copy of Siege, also naming Apple and Google?

Ubisoft said virtually every screen was copied, from operator selection to final scoring.

Xbox One buyers of Siege could download which two earlier Rainbow Six games for free?

A cheaper Starter Edition arrived on PC in June 2016 and became permanent on Uplay in 2017.

How many retail copies did Siege sell in its UK launch week, debuting at number six?

A slow start for what became one of the decade's biggest multiplayer games.

How many playable maps did Siege have after the four added in Year 1 and three in Year 2?

Terrorist Hunt on the harder difficulty adds friendly fire.

In mid-2018, Ubisoft began issuing bans to players who did what?

It was part of a broader crackdown on toxicity in the community.

Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six, which spawned the series, was published in which year?

Red Storm Entertainment built the first game alongside the book, and Ubisoft bought Red Storm in 2000.

In the novel, which CIA officer forms Rainbow and holds the codename 'Rainbow Six'?

Rainbow is based in Hereford, England, and staffed by NATO special forces with FBI, MI6 and Mossad support.

The villains of the Rainbow Six novel plan to wipe out humanity with a modified strain of which virus?

Called 'Shiva', it was to be released through the fog-cooling system at the Sydney Olympics.

How many main entries did the Rainbow Six video game series have by the end of 2024?

Plus six expansion packs from the early instalments.

How many people did Ubisoft assemble to brainstorm rebooting the series after its predecessor was cancelled?

They decided the franchise's core was letting players be the world's top counter-terrorist operatives.

What working title did Siege carry, reflecting both its destruction tech and the team's mindset?

Brand director Alexandre Remy admitted the team was nervous that the new direction would disappoint fans of the cancelled Patriots.

How long is the preparatory phase at the start of each online round?

Attackers scout with drones while defenders fortify and try to destroy those drones before the assault begins.

What do attackers use to scout the map during the preparation phase?

Defenders are encouraged to destroy them so the objective and their set-ups stay hidden; dead players cannot respawn until the round ends.

In the competitive Bomb mode, attackers must locate and defuse one of how many bombs?

If all attackers die after planting the defuser, defenders must still destroy it to win the round.

Which French counter-terrorism unit did the developers consult about hostage-rescue tactics?

The 150-strong team also studied real operations such as the 1977 Lufthansa hijacking and the 2002 Moscow theatre crisis.

Which 1977 hijacking was among the historic counter-terrorist operations the developers studied?

Creative director Xavier Marquis wanted the portrayal of such operations to be accurate and appropriate.

Siege was delayed to December 1, 2015 from which originally planned release date?

Ubisoft wanted more time to balance the game for cooperative multiplayer after a closed beta that began on September 24.

Roughly how large was the Ubisoft Montreal team that built Siege?

It was made up mostly of first-person shooter veterans and longtime Rainbow Six players, with help from studios in Barcelona, Toronto, Kyiv, Shanghai and Chengdu.

Fan backlash in 2022 made Ubisoft move a planned Six Major out of which country?

Critics cited the country's treatment of LGBTQ+ people and safety concerns for Ubisoft staff and players.