Rainbow Six Siege is dropping the Year Pass in Year 6, first operator revealed

Ubisoft unveiled a host of new Rainbow Six Siege content and changes releasing over the course of the year.

This year in Rainbow Six Siege will look different. As previously revealed, the game is only getting four operators in Year 6, one per season.

The even bigger change, however, is that the Year Pass is itself going away. Previously, operators were available as part of a season pass-style purchase called the Year Pass. Available for every year since Siege's original release, each pass would include access to all of that year's yet-to-be-released operators, as well as a few other bonuses.

Last year, however, Ubisoft brought the battle pass system to Siege, which never quite made sense with the existence of the Year Pass, and in a game that's already heavily monetised elsewhere. Going forward, the yearly pass is being dropped, as Ubisoft doubles down on the battle pass.

Starting with Year 6 Season 1: Crimson Heist, each new operator will now be part of the battle pass. The new characters will not be a free unlock, however. In order to immediately unlock the operator, players will need to buy that season's battle pass ($10). This obviously also allows them to earn a host of other cosmetics through the pass' progression.

The two-week early access window still exists. Following that, the operator will be available for purchase separately from the battle pass for the usual 25,000 Renown, or 600 Rainbow Six Credits ($5).

As for the new content in Crimson Heist, it brings a new operator, and a rework of the map Border. The operator is an Argentinean attacker named Flores. His signature gadget is the RCE – Ratero Charge, which is a remote-controlled explosive device. Flores can deploy it and drive it through the map for a few seconds. At the end of a set timer, the device will arm, become bulletproof and start a detonation countdown.

The resulting exposition is big, and Flores can start this process any time. The new attacker can pick between AR33 or a SR-25 as his primary, with GSH-18 as his secondary.

This season also debuts a new secondary gadget called the Gonne-6. The weapon is designed to counter the "20-second meta" and the defence-favoured meta which took over in Year 5.

All the new content will go live on Rainbow Six Siege's test server later today, and for everyone else on March 16.