Over the weekend at the BLAST R6 Manchester Major, Ubisoft announced its upcoming R6 Membership, which elicited a round of boos from those in attendance. Ubisoft unveiled the new membership plan during the company’s reveal of the roadmap and plans for Y9S2 – Operation New Blood.
On the online announcement page for the new membership, Ubisoft opens by remarking, “Unlock the ultimate Rainbow Six Siege experience with the R6 membership.” It adds that the membership will include “exclusive drop content every month, including a time-limited Legendary item (sometimes animated for extra flair), an Epic operator bundle, full access to the premium Battle Pass, 10x Battle levels, and a Bravo pack totaling over 4500 credits of value monthly.”
The move comes at a time where the highly popular online tactical shooter recently saw its all-time concurrent player record for Steam reach over 201,000 players. However, the player base that set that record did not seem too happy with the announcement of a $10 a month (discounted to $80 for an annual plan) membership plan, as many in the crowd booed, as can be clearly heard the TikTok video below.
Another player posted a similar clip on Reddit, I-Am-Bodge, who added that the crowd broke out into chants of “robbing bastards,” which can not be heard in either video. Another Redditor added that they understood that Ubisoft took the idea from Fortnite’s Crew membership, but pointed out Fortnite is a free to play game, while R6 is not.
Some note that there does not seem to include anything in the membership plan that will make it a true pay-to-win subscription, but some players are already upset that additional content will be locked behind a $10 per month paywall.
For those who opt to take advantage of the new membership, the Reward Delivery Schedule will be:
- Upon enrolling you get: Instant Battle Pass access, 10 Battle levels, and 1 Bravo pack.
- Then get a new cosmetic drop containing 1 Legendary item and 1 Epic bundle on the 28th of each month (first drop begins June 28th).
- On the player’s monthly renewal date, they will receive another 10 Battle levels and 1 Bravo pack.
While the addition of the R6 Membership may not be a welcome one to the R6 community, companies using monthly subscription plans like this seems to becoming more commonplace. At the end of the day, it will be up to each gamer whether they choose to pay, or simply just play.