After holding out for 10 years, Rainbow Six Siege is finally going free-to-play (kind of)

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

One of the last pay-to-play holdouts is laying down its ~~sword~~sledgehammer. To coincide with its big year 10 refresh, Rainbow Six Siege is finally going free-to-play. Well, for the most part.

As part of the Rainbow Six Siege X update coming June 10, the tactical FPS will enter what Ubisoft calls "free access." The majority of Siege will be free to access, but its two most competitive modes, Ranked and Siege Cup, will remain behind a paywall.

rainbow six siege x dual front mode — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

In 2020, then-director Leroy Athanassoff told me a lot of the development wanted Siege to be free someday, but there was one very good reason to remain a premium game: To not make life any easier for smurfs and cheaters. Smurfing will technically be easier when Siege X enters free access, but Karpazis thinks locking Ranked behind the full version will balance the scales.

"Having that barrier to Ranked or Siege Cup means you have to be committed to the game. It does mean we weed out smurfs, and it means we're prepared to continue supporting the most competitive aspect of the game," Karpazis said.

"It is, in our opinion, the best of both worlds where you can bring in new players but also have this place where veterans feel super competitive and committed to the game."

One modestly-sized elephant in the room is that, even though Siege still retails for $20, picking up a cheap copy is extremely easy. In the last year alone, Siege has gone on sale for $8 on 10 different occasions. As I write this, it's at a two-year low of $4 on Steam. It's so cheap so often that there's a decent chance you bought it five years ago and forgot. Anyone dedicated enough to Siege to want a second account can already buy one for the price of a large coffee.

At the same time that Siege X enters free access, it'll also receive Dual Front, its first new permanent mode in 10 years. I played a few matches of Dual Front here in Atlanta and had a good time. Stay tuned for more Siege X coverage as Ubi formally unveils the game today.

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Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

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