Gameitall 
Rainbow Six Siege has possibly been one of the best multiplayer shooters to come out recently and that has been greatly in part of the team’s constant work to update and bring new content to the game. It’s also due to the game’s wide success that Ubisoft has announced (via an interview with Gamesindustry.biz) that they will no longer sell expansions required to enjoy the core experience of their games.
According to Ubisoft’s vice president of live operations, Anne Blondel-Jouin, Ubisoft plans to support games for five to ten years moving forward and that monetisation is something it has to be “very careful about.” Stating the following in the interview:
“Because you’ll be asking for more money for the wrong reasons. Also, if the content is compulsory for the gamers, it’s no good as well. It is a way to deliver more fun to gamers, but they have a choice to go for that extra fun or not. If I take an analogy of an amusement park, you can go through all the rides, but then you can also go to the shop to buy some food or merchandise or whatever… regardless of whether you spend in the shop, you’re still part of the whole experience.
“Nobody is making you buy if you don’t want to, but it is another way to have a different entertainment experience. If you’re with your kids, and there’s a toy you want to get, we will make sure it is an extra experience. It won’t be the case if you don’t buy it then you can’t do anything else. It wouldn’t work if it was about making it compulsory for gamers.
“No more DLC that you have to buy if you want to have the full experience. You have the game, and if you want to expand it—depending on how you want to experience the game—you’re free to buy it, or not.”
This new method isn’t something exactly new for the industry (however it is rare enough to warrant praise for the companies that do it), after all Respawn Entertainment has also suggested doing this method with the recently released Titanfall 2, where the new Titan skins and Assassination moves will be purchasable but maps, weapons and Titan kits will be part of free updates. Rainbow Six Siege’s first year of content was very similar, as players had options to purchase new operatives with real money, or work their way into purchasing them through in game, however maps that came with the new operatives were available to all.
“It does have the same commercial impact [as charging DLC],” Blondel-Jouin adds. “It is also more fair for both Ubisoft and the gamers, as it is an extra proposal for them and they even take it or not. This new way of doing things, is because it is Ubisoft’s responsibility to deliver gamers with the best quality possible. If you do a nasty toy, it will stay in the store no matter what the brand is. It is putting our creative teams back to work to deliver the best stuff for gamers, and it’s a win-win situation.”
Rainbow Six Siege’s first year of content is set to finish next month on December 17th with Operation Dead Crow. However Ubisoft has already confirmed a second season of content with more information to be released before the end of 2016.
