Leveraging a 10-Year Legacy, Ubisoft Montreal’s Alexander Karpazis on Rainbow Six Siege X

Ubisoft Montreal broke down the barriers to its new, overhauled Rainbow Six Siege X experience. 10 years after the initial launch of Siege, this latest major update is best defined as an evolution of the team-based tactical shooter.

Rainbow Six Siege X honours the 10-year legacy of the online multiplayer game but refreshes the experience, offering brand new pieces of content for players to sink their teeth into. With today’s launch of Siege X, Ubisoft Montreal is introducing the new 6v6 game mode dubbed ‘Dual Front.’ This permanent mode features a larger map and new gameplay elements, including in-match events and respawns. Players can also look forward to modernized maps, new destructible environments, and improved rappel navigation. There’s also a ton of quality-of-life improvements being made. Audio engineering is being overhauled to provide clearer audio cues. There is also improved lighting and shadows, as well as higher resolution.

Siege X marks a major milestone for the game as well as its community. Ubisoft Montreal has readily supported Rainbow Six Siege throughout the past decade, propelling the game on the esports stage as well. Siege X isn’t just being built for devoted fans. It also includes a brand-new onboarding experience for new or returning players.

Sitting down with Creative Director Alexander Karpazis, I got to hear about how the studio is reflecting on this moment and how the launch will pave the road for the future of the franchise.

Vegvari: Siege X marks an outstanding overhaul of the long-running Rainbow Six Siege. With its new 6v6 Dual Front mode, new maps, and quality of life changes, this feels like a big inflection point for the game. How has the last decade impacted the development of this refresh?

Karpazis: I would say, first, this decade is really thanks to a strong and passionate community. They’re the ones that helped shape us over time, from season to season, feature to feature. So in reality, Siege has everything to thank for when it comes to the community and when it comes to Siege x, this is our moment to give back to the community. It’s our chance to answer some of the biggest requests that they’ve had for the longest time. It’s also a moment for us to ensure that we can be around for the future as well.

Vegvari: Year 10 is an outstanding milestone. However, it’s within reason that the longer the game is supported, the more new players may feel overwhelmed to join. What can you tell me about the onboarding process of Siege X?

Karpazis: So Siege X is our moment to say, with a lot of conviction, “This is the best time to jump in if you’ve never tried the game before.” We’ve completely overhauled the onboarding experience so you can jump in, get a good sense of what the game is about, with a lot of learning tools. This is also when the game goes free access, so you can jump in for free and bring your friends in. This game is better when you can play with your friends in a group. And we have new things, like the new game mode, Dual Front. This is something that everybody starts at the same level. This is a completely new map, completely new game mode. There is no defined meta, so everybody gets to experience it for the first time. It’s great that veterans and new people can jump in and experience it all.

Vegvari: On the inverse of this, Rainbow Six Siege has supported a dedicated community. How did the team approach a major overhaul of this stature without excluding features or mechanics that die-hard fans love?

Karpazis: We’re only here because of those players, and so we want to respect their time. We want to respect their investment, and that means protecting what we call the core of Siege, so that it doesn’t go through too much change that we lose our identity. So it’s about layering on those things that are important to the game. Destruction is so important. So we layered on destructible ingredients, fire extinguishers and gas pipes that are hidden around the map that can change the strategy in the moment-to-moment action. We’ve completely updated the audio engine. For the game, which is so important in games like Siege. This is something that our community has been asking for, and it’s something that’s really hard to do over a short amount of time. Usually, we release Seasons every three months. Siege X is really something where we had years to think about and say, “What do we want to work on and make as a sizable change?” This is the moment where we get to release it. 

Vegvari: Siege X also includes a lot of performance upgrades. Better lighting effects, shadows, and higher resolutions. On PC, this comes with the expectation of spec requirements. How does this fresh coat of paint add to the overall gameplay experience?

Karpazis: It’s not just PC. We managed to cram all of that goodness onto consoles as well. For us, this is just as important as the gameplay. It’s the immersion, it’s the tone of the game. It really actually helps with that heart-pumping action that you associate with Siege, and having those visuals match the gameplay and how crisp they are and how satisfying they are in this world that you’re jumping into gives the whole package to players. So, for us to be able to update this after 10 years of being live is really satisfying.

Vegvari: Theme Park and Skyscraper maps are being modernized. As a development team, how do you strike the balance between refreshing maps while maintaining that authenticity that players expect when jumping back in?

Karpazis: We’ve always said that maps are like another character unto themselves. So, we have to respect that. We want to make sure that players still feel comfortable and familiar with them. But we have overhauled all of the textures and materials so that they are much more grounded, much more realistic. Again, gives that sense of integration and immersion that you would expect from a shooter that is grounded in today’s quality that you would expect.

Vegvari: With Year 10, Siege X is launching Operation Daybreak, as expected, it arrives with balancing updates. What are some of the most exciting tweaks we can expect? 

Karpazis: So we are releasing what we call a remastered Operator. This is a character who’s been released in the past, but we really know that we can do better. With Clash, we’ve changed her gameplay to be satisfying, not only for the player. To have a shield on defence is a really unique experience, not just in our game, but in most games. We wanted to make sure that the gameplay there respected a lot of the fun and strategy that you would expect from the player, playing the character, but also playing against the character. They’re not somebody who’s frustrating. Big changes coming to an operator like Clash is what we do with Operators that kind of fall out of the meta, and we have to bring them back in and make them fun, and then we have a lot of micro changes as well that are coming. We have systemic changes, too. We have electricity in our game that’s changing up how you interact with the world around you.

That’s our promise to players. Making sure that the game continually feels right, gets updated, and you can discover new strategies throughout the year.

Vegvari: What does the 10-year legacy mean for the team and Rainbow Six Siege?

Karpazis: For us, it means a learning journey. This is something that we had no idea on the outset that it would grow up to be. We have millions of players. There’s a thriving esports community now based around it. A community again, that is always sharing, always learning and trying to master that experience is something that we as devs as well try to chase. We’re trying to get better and better, faster and faster, delivering new updates. It’s a wonderful thing when you have that kind of stability with a game, and you can look out into the future and say, “Yes, we want to go there.” We want to try something new, and the community comes with us.

Rainbow Six Siege X is available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Ubisoft Connect, Steam, and Epic Games.

[This interview has been edited for clarity and length.]