Why Rainbow Six: Patriots became Rainbow Six: Seige

The Rainbow Six game we saw at E3 2014 wasn't the one we were expecting. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explains why Patriots became Siege.

At its E3 2014 conference, Ubisoft revealed Rainbow Six: Siege, a multiplayer-focused tactical shooter that has grown out of the troubled Rainbow Six: Patriots project. Patriots, unveiled in late 2011, was a single-player focused title, but we've long suspected it had been if not cancelled then certainly restarted multiple times.

Speaking to CVG, Guillemot said Ubisoft realised it "needed to go first with multiplayer" - hence the reboot.

"Before when we made games, we were leading first with single-player and then taking the systems from that to do multi-player. With Rainbow Six we said, 'OK, we have to change our way of doing things' - lead with multi-player first and then make single-player from that," he said.

"That's what made us change the game totally. We decided to restart with that in mind. The decision came from what we were seeing in the marketplace and because we wanted to do a 60 frames-per-second multi-player game."

Although Patriots received a mixed reaciton on reveal thanks to controversial narrative elements in its early trailers, Guillemot said the decision to rethink the project was gameplay-driven, not inspired by backlash.

"The only chance we had to come with something that would be impressive in the online FPS arena was to have 60 frames-per-second and no limits imposed by having single-player. That's what made us change direction," he said.

The executive said it's easier these days to write off big projects like Patriots because the industry has polarised; games either hit or miss, and if they miss, they don't make anything near enough to cover their production costs.

On top of that, Ubisoft doesn't want to disappoint fans - or itself.

"There are lots of factors to take into account. We know that with all of our teams, when their game doesn't sell, they are unhappy," Guillemot said.

Check out Rainbow Six: Siege's debut gameplay footage from E3 2014, and hit the link above for the full interviews. The tactical multiplayer shooter is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One - just as we suspected.