Here's What REALLY Happened to Rainbow Six Extraction. - From the Perspective of a Day 1 Player.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

So, I've seen a lot of general discussions going about in the community with a lot of people left confused about what this game is, what the status of this game is like, and why it only made its way to Steam now when content support for the game long ended. I've always wanted to personally address these concerns that the community has had for a long time, but have never had a big enough platform to do so until now. As such, I'll be giving an in depth timeline of events in the order that they happened with links to relevant information to support my claims. Strap in because this is going to be a long post.

(What's the game about?)

Rainbow Six Extraction is a three player co-op, tactical, alien horde shooter that can be played solo or with teams of up to 3 people. The project was spearheaded by former Ubisoft creative director, Patrik Methé (More on him later.), and a small dev team from Ubisoft Montreal. The game is powered by both the AnvilNext and AnvilNext 2.0 engines and supports cross play and cross progression on all platforms as well as a unique Buddy Pass system that allows 2 friends to play the game for free for up to 14 days once activated using buddy Pass tokens. Owners of both Siege and Extraction get access to all of the operators within Rainbow Six Extraction if they have not yet been unlocked in Siege. Initially, the game was titled "Rainbow Six Quarantine" when it was first revealed on June 10, 2019, but for obvious reasons, it was later changed to have the codename "Rainbow Six Parasite" before finally settling on the name "Rainbow Six Extraction". The game was finally released on January 20, 2022.

Now, before the games initial launch, there was some slight controversy regarding concerns about the games seemingly lack of of content that distinguished Extraction enough from Siege and more importantly that fact that the games initial asking price was for $60 on retail for just the standard edition of the game. The community was vocally outraged by this and game was hit with a delay for January 2022. It was here where we began to see a shift in the games marketing. Ubisoft focused their efforts on showing off that unrevealed content that they had been assuring players was within the game. This included things such as: Free Post-Launch and Endgame Content, showing off the many different alien variants along with the maps, missions or incursions, and the 4 difficulties, explaining how the Maelstrom Protocol worked, the aforementioned Buddy Pass as well information regarding the operators available, and most importantly revealing that the game would be receiving a price drop of $40 on retail for the base game. All of this proved to be favorable amongst the community and changed public perception to the be more positive than before. However, there was still of course some reasonable skepticism about the games performance to be had.

Furthermore, a common misconception about Extraction's launch is that was largely unsuccessful leading to the game performing poorly and seemingly dying on arrival. This is all factual untrue. Contrary to popular belief, Rainbow Six Extraction had a very successful launch. In it's first week alone, it garnered approximately 3 million players (See here: https://siege.gg/news/3026-rainbow-six-extraction-surpasses-3-million-players-in-first-week) before reaching a record all time peak at 5 million players as stated in Ubisoft's Third-Quarter 2021-2022 sales published on February 17, 2022 (See here: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/17/2387441/0/en/UBISOFT-REPORTS-THIRD-QUARTER-2021-22-SALES.html). This may not seem like a huge success, considering the heights that Siege has managed to reach, but what you have to take into consideration is that Rainbow Six Extraction is a niche game by design and intent compared to Siege which is designed to try to appeal and pander to a mainstream gaming audience and eSports scene. Crossing a 5 million player landmark in one month on top of having mostly positive, if somewhat average, review scores is without a doubt a huge success for such a niech title being made by a small dev team.

(What is the status of the game right now?)

This bring us to the present day. What happened to the game and why have the developers stopped producing brand new content? In truth, there is no concrete answer for this as nobody over at Ubisoft who have worked on the game or are in a higher position of power have given a reason for why development has stopped or even directly acknowledged that development has stopped. Some people speculate that the reason for the devs forgoing development had to do with low player numbers and poor performance, but as I've previously discussed, that can't possibly be the case. Ubisoft executives have only been speaking favorable about Extraction in conjunction to Siege and the Rainbow Six franchise post the games launch (See here: https://siege.gg/news/ubisoft-public-investor-report-earnings-call-expand-on-financial-situation-for-rainbow-six-series). In fact, the only two games that were released from Ubisoft last year that had reportedly underperformed were Mario + Rabbids 2 and Just Dance 2023 (See here: https://mynintendonews.com/2023/01/11/ubisoft-says-mario-rabbids-sparks-of-hope-just-dance-2023-underperformed/).

Although, I do have one very strong theory as to why the development of the game likely stopped. I did my my own research into the discussion when it was stated that development of Extraction ended months ago back in January or February of this year. I stated my search by looking up the names of the people who developed the game. It was here that I acme across some interesting information. Once I searched up the name of Extraction's creative director, Patrik Methé, I came across articles that stated that he had left Extraction and Ubisoft as a whole in order to work as the head of a brand new video game studio in Montreal called Krafton Montreal and has been with the company since October 2022 (See here: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ex-ubisoft-devs-lead-kraftons-new-aaa-studio-in-montreal). It was around this time that communication with the devs started to slow down a bit even on the official Discord where they used to be moderately active. Methé was undoubtedly a strong figurehead for the game as he participated in numerous interviews discussing his vision for the game. Having been with the company for so long and having lots of experience, I have no doubt that losing him struck a big blow to the game's development moving forward.

As of right now, there are no plans for brand new content for Extraction. However, the official Rainbow Six Extraction Twitter did release a roadmap that revealed that all previous content, which mostly includes the the previous Crisis Events, will be recycled on a seasonal basis from the end of this year and beyond moving forward (See here:https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/rainbow-six/extraction/news-updates/1rEAt53Nb5MbnVf4lIZQQ3). This will give all new comers a chance to try out the events and era the rewards associated with them. Nobody will ever have to miss out on any content again.

In terms of playability, the game is still very active with a dedicated player base. I found myself playing the game for hours on end these past few months while trying to upgrade all of my characters and get them to prestige level. Queue times for me are never long and mostly take as long as 30 secs to 1 min for me to find a match in most cases. It should be noted that I live in the U.S. and from what I hear, North America, Europe, and perhaps South America are where the game is most populated. Despite being without any brand new content for 6 months now, the community is still going strong and has even seen in influx of more new players thanks to the game coming to PlayStation Plus and now Steam.

(Why have Ubisoft decided to put the game on Steam now?)

Ubisoft has been releasing a lot of their previous released titles on Steam now. Extraction was in fact revealed to be coming to Steam along with Far Cry 6 and some other games. I can only imagine that Ubsioft has realized siding with the Epic Games Store ultimately did not work in their favor and are deciding to change course. It just so happened that this decision camee after Extraction's content life span had ended.

(Conclusion)

Rainbow Six Extraction was a game that had massive potential that was ultimately let down by poor initial marketing, lackluster communication, and the creative director responsible for spearheading the project leaving the game and company to pursue better business endeavors. It also doesn't help that the game was plagued by people within the community spreading blatant and widespread misinformation regarding new content which mostly turned out to be fabricated leaving many people even more disappointed when the truth came out.

As disappointing as it is to hear, we as a community are all on our own. But at least hope that with this, some clarity will be given so that we can move forward and enjoy what we have. While the game won't receive brand new content, it is still being updated by Ubisoft support in case any bugs occur so if you have any issues take it up with them.

That's all for now folks.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

It took me hours to write and fact check all of this. I'm tired.

[Fear2288]

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with it now on Steam.

Personally, I never even heard of this game before today, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Perhaps if Extraction sees a revival of interest, Ubisoft will double back to it and consider developing new content.

Anything’s possible I guess. Just look at what happened with Siege.

I distinctly recall that when Siege released it was not received very well by a vocal portion of the target playerbase. People were PISSED that they just abandoned the narrative driven, singleplayer tactical shooter style for a multiplayer-only model.

Then somewhere around 6 - 12 months after release it appeared to have this SURGE in popularity - streamers were all over it, clips were constantly being posted on social media platforms, and it quickly became the go-to game for people looking for a modern multiplayer shooter that was slower paced, more tactical, and “required more skill” than the COD or Battlefield series.

Now Siege is considered one of the most successful and popular multiplayer FPS titles in recent years - undoubtedly doing better than Battlefield, but still behind the seemingly too-big-to-fail COD juggernaut and maybe Overwatch (though I can’t say how Overwatch 2 is doing these days, I recall there was some serious backlash on the sequel and Blizzard for shutting down the first game).

[Noxbi 🌈]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Then somewhere around 6 - 12 months after release it appeared to have this SURGE in popularity - streamers were all over it, clips were constantly being posted on social media platforms, and it quickly became the go-to game for people looking for a modern multiplayer shooter that was slower paced, more tactical, and “required more skill” than the COD or Battlefield series.

Now Siege is considered one of the most successful and popular multiplayer FPS titles in recent years - undoubtedly doing better than Battlefield

Yeah, the difference is Siege is quite unique in the PvP market. There's no other game like it, and it's good. The devs seem to know what their strenghts are and keep on improving.

Extraction is a generic zombie shooter with huge identity crisis. There are much better alternatives out there, like Back4Blood, which is also dead btw.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Originally posted by Noxbi 🌈:

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Then somewhere around 6 - 12 months after release it appeared to have this SURGE in popularity - streamers were all over it, clips were constantly being posted on social media platforms, and it quickly became the go-to game for people looking for a modern multiplayer shooter that was slower paced, more tactical, and “required more skill” than the COD or Battlefield series.

Now Siege is considered one of the most successful and popular multiplayer FPS titles in recent years - undoubtedly doing better than Battlefield

Yeah, the difference is Siege is quite unique in the PvP market. There's no other game like it, and it's good. The devs seem to know what their strenghts are and keep on improving.

Extraction is a generic zombie shooter with huge identity crisis. There are much better alternatives out there, like Back4Blood, which is also dead btw.

Rainbow Six Siege has not kept on improving. The narrative structure of full of plot holes, dropped plot points, elements that don't make any sense, etc. Not to mention that the devs still to this day try to push awful balance changes that aren't necessary from time to time.

Extraction is not a generic zombie shooter. You're not even fighting zombies to begin with my guy. It's a tactical co-op alien horde shooter that favors patience and teamwork over arcady shooting. Comparing it to Back4Blood of all things is a horrendous false equivalence.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Originally posted by M.A.K.Dynasty:

Originally posted by Noxbi 🌈:

Yeah, the difference is Siege is quite unique in the PvP market. There's no other game like it, and it's good. The devs seem to know what their strenghts are and keep on improving.

Extraction is a generic zombie shooter with huge identity crisis. There are much better alternatives out there, like Back4Blood, which is also dead btw.

Rainbow Six Siege has not kept on improving. The narrative structure of full of plot holes, dropped plot points, elements that don't make any sense, etc. Not to mention that the devs still to this day try to push awful balance changes that aren't necessary from time to time.

Extraction is not a generic zombie shooter. You're not even fighting zombies to begin with my guy. It's a tactical co-op alien horde shooter that favors patience and teamwork over arcady shooting. Comparing it to Back4Blood of all things is a horrendous false equivalence.

I'm really not trying to argue about the difference between both games in this comment section, so let's end this discussion here.

[craig234]

Overwatch... bad, abusive moderation where toxic players could ban people reporting.

[Noxbi 🌈]

Originally posted by M.A.K.Dynasty:

Extraction is not a generic zombie shooter. You're not even fighting zombies to begin with my guy. It's a tactical co-op alien horde shooter

Alien horde that looks and acts like zombies. Yeah, sure, whatever, mate.

Okay, if you want actually good tactical horde shooter game, try Killing Floor. Time much better spent than Extraction, and the playerbase is still alive.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Originally posted by Noxbi 🌈:

Originally posted by M.A.K.Dynasty:

Extraction is not a generic zombie shooter. You're not even fighting zombies to begin with my guy. It's a tactical co-op alien horde shooter

Alien horde that looks and acts like zombies. Yeah, sure, whatever, mate.

Okay, if you want actually good tactical horde shooter game, try Killing Floor. Time much better spent than Extraction, and the playerbase is still alive.

They literally don't act like zombies, more like living beings thriving in an ecosystem of their own design like ants as mentioned in the lore, but okay pal.

I've already played this game since day one, stuck with it for over a year and a half now, bought it three times now, nearly leveled up all my characters and almost have all of the trophies on PlayStation, and still find myself able to play it for hours on end with low queue times. Thanks, but I'm not going anywhere pal. I'm sticking with this game and community till the very end.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Going to be now. Stay safe peeps.

[-|Nur|-]

Originally posted by M.A.K.Dynasty:

Originally posted by Noxbi 🌈:

Yeah, the difference is Siege is quite unique in the PvP market. There's no other game like it, and it's good. The devs seem to know what their strenghts are and keep on improving.

Extraction is a generic zombie shooter with huge identity crisis. There are much better alternatives out there, like Back4Blood, which is also dead btw.

Rainbow Six Siege has not kept on improving. The narrative structure of full of plot holes, dropped plot points, elements that don't make any sense, etc. Not to mention that the devs still to this day try to push awful balance changes that aren't necessary from time to time.

No one cares about the "narrative" or "plot" in Siege and I wish the developers understood that as it just comes off as cringe. I mean where exactly does the plot become relevant when you step into a match?

Obviously not every gameplay change is going to turn out correct, but people who think the game has not considerably improved in terms of gameplay since launch suffer from extremely selective memories.

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Originally posted by -|Nur|-:

Originally posted by M.A.K.Dynasty:

Rainbow Six Siege has not kept on improving. The narrative structure of full of plot holes, dropped plot points, elements that don't make any sense, etc. Not to mention that the devs still to this day try to push awful balance changes that aren't necessary from time to time.

No one cares about the "narrative" or "plot" in Siege and I wish the developers understood that as it just comes off as cringe. I mean where exactly does the plot become relevant when you step into a match?

Obviously not every gameplay change is going to turn out correct, but people who think the game has not considerably improved in terms of gameplay since launch suffer from extremely selective memories.

Actually, you'd be wrong about that. I and many other people do actually care about the narrative and plot in Siege and only find it "cringe" when it stops focusing on counter terrorism and replaces it with high school musical tier drama. Many long term Rainbow Six players outright hate the act that Siege abandoned the story element just to focus on multiplayer.

I do think that overall the game has made considerable improvements. Especially compared to Year 6. But I'm not going to pretend as if they've only been a hot streak of good ideas lately either.

Now please, I made this post to discuss Extraction. Not Siege.

[Sir]

honestly the community ♥♥♥♥ on the game itself unjustly (specially to those who dont even own it lol). im really happy to have it on steam (ive played it on ubi) hoping for more attention from community
and ubi would decide to continue adding more content to it.

but man, lot of salty comments on discussion when they've never played it at all (and if they do, hopefully in neutral mindset not playing it because to look for something to fuel their hatred).

ps: this is on alternate universe of siege where alien zombie happened. not canon story of siege

[TrinitySeven]

community did that because it was proper...game has LOTS of anti-consumer properties, when the same company produced WILDLANDS with lots of PRO consumer properties...these are IMPORTANT considerations. Also the game COULD be better if it would ADD IronMan like WildLands did, currently when you get all your ops to prestige level you are SUPER BORED with all the lack of challenging content. IronMan COULD go a long way to fix that. Also A NEW difficulty level (veteran) that they TEASE us with every couple months or so for a couple weeks on one small map. Put that INTO the game universally...because the max difficulty is still far too easy for many.

[Oni-Lyrics]

erhm. im not reading all that. devs already said that they dropped support for this game. thats what happened. :/

[M.A.K.Dynasty]

Originally posted by Oni-Lyrics:

erhm. im not reading all that. devs already said that they dropped support for this game. thats what happened. :/

I did say that it would be a long read you know. There's a lot more to the story than just that. Besides, the news came from Ubisoft tech support, not anyone from the actual dev team who actually worked on the game.