Rainbow Six Siege Year 8: Everything We Know So Far
Here's everything we know about Rainbow Six Siege Year 8, starting with Operation Commanding Force and running all the way to 2024.
Rainbow Six Siege will see another four content drops as part of its Year 8 plans, as Ubisoft continues to update and build on its tactical shooter.
There's plenty of information out there about Operation Commanding Force which will kick off Rainbow Six Siege Year 8, but we've found plenty more about the following three seasons, too.
Here's everything you need to know about Rainbow Six Siege Year 8.
Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Operators
The big draw of every new season in Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 is the new Operators, and this year's bunch of new recruits should be exciting based on the game's Creative Director's comments in a recent interview with GGRecon.
"Our goal with Year 8 is to make sure that each operator has their unique story that they can tell," Alex Karpazis told us.
"There will be moments where we'll see a role or an action, or a specific Operator that's taking a lot of the limelight because of how essential they are to the meta of Siege."
- Y8S1, Operation Commanding Force, introduced Brava - a Brazilian Attacker who can capture drones from other players.
- Y8S2, Operation Dread Factor, added Fenrir - a Swedish Defender who can block an opponent's vision using hallucinogenics.
- Y8S3, Operation Heavy Mettle, adds Ram - a South Korean Attacker who can use her BU-GI drone to distract and destroy.
We already know that Y8S4's Operator will be a Portuguese one - and we expect them to be a Defender.
When Does Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Start?
Year 8 Season 1, known as Operation Commanding Force, kicked off on March 7.
The latest season, Operation Heavy Mettle, will debut on August 29 - with a Test Server appearance on August 14.
Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Changes
Aside from the reloading changes we've already covered in our Y8S1 guide, Ubisoft has also revealed plenty of changes are coming.
In Y8S3, Frost's "Welcome Mat" gadget will be updated so that players can remove it themselves should they have time to do so, while a new Observation Blocker debuted in Y8S2.
Y8S4 will see shield-carrying Operators given a once-over, with characters like Clash able to peek either side of their shield.
Also coming in Year 8 are new controller presets and button remapping for console players, a new "first of its kind in the FPS genre" anti-cheat system called QB, and MouseTrap - which recognises when controller players are using Mouse and Keyboard and penalises them.
Quick Play has been overhauled, too, with reduced round timers, Attacker Invulnerability at round start to prevent spawn peeking, and automatically positioned defences.
An AI playlist will be introduced in Y8S4 which will let players defend their site against AI attackers. AI defenders are planned for a later stage, with these CPU opponents built on the behaviour of real players.
Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 New Map & Reworks
Players can expect one overhauled map in Year 8, with Consulate revamped in Year 8 Season 2, Dread Factor.
As for new maps, there's a new one arriving in Y8S4. We'll update this when we know more.
That's all we know about Year 8 in Rainbow Six Siege. For more, be sure to check out our interview with Siege's Creative Director about Brava, the Y8S1 Operator.
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
