Rainbow Six Siege Switching to Seasonal Skins Much to Players' Chagrin

Attention, players of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege: Gather ye skins while ye may. When Year 3 Season 2 starts up later this year, Ubisoft is making a switch to Overwatch-style seasonal cosmetic skins. That means exactly what you think it means: Once a season is over, it takes its skins—and your opportunity to buy those skins—along with it.

Ubisoft announced the change yesterday on the official Rainbow Six Siege website. "Starting in Year 3 Season 2, the Seasonal headgears and uniforms will only be available for the duration of the season in which they are released," the update states. "The White Noise headgear and uniforms [from Year 2 Season 4] will return to the shop individually on May 2nd as a last chance to acquire them."

When current season, "Chimera," ends, several Seasonal headgears, uniforms, and bundles will go with it. The items on Death Row include:

• Skull Rain headgear
• Red Crow headgear
• Velvet Shell headgear
• Blood Orchid bundle
• White Noise bundle
• Chimera bundle

The Rainbow Six subreddit caught news about the seasonal skins, and the reaction isn't favorable. Most fans of the game regard the change as an attempt to bleed more Rainbow Six credits (the game's hard currency) from fans.

"They [Ubisoft] want people to think 'Oh shit, but I need those black skins,'" writes "Marth_Shepard." "And since they'll probably not get enough renown in time, they'll be pressed to shell out those R6 credits earlier than they would otherwise, before these exclusive skins will disappear forever."

"Such actions literally make me stop spending a single cent despite how much I like what they have to offer," agrees "booneht." "I hate when the companies try to make us spend on the game not because we feel like they did a good job but because they forced our hands."

Ubisoft built up goodwill with Rainbow Six Siege's community by taking the time and effort to hammer out the game's flaws since its launch in December 2015. Transferring to a seasonal skin system might ding those positive feelings.

It's not hard to understand why Ubisoft is making the change: People complain about being taken advantage of via microtransactions, but they typically pay up. Still, it's going to be interesting to see if Ubisoft is truly willing sacrifice its standing with the Rainbow Six Siege community in exchange for a little more cash.