Rainbow Six Siege Finally Gets Full Crossplay With Year 9 Season 4 — and Ubisoft Has a Plan to Protect Console Players From PC Cheaters

Rainbow Six Siege’s next update finally adds PC and console crossplay to the competitive multiplayer shooter.

The Year 9 Season 4 update, dubbed Operation Collision Point, launches on December 3 and also makes changes to anticheat, remasters an Operator, adds Siege Cup, and tweaks gameplay balance.

Despite approaching its ninth birthday, Siege remains one of the most popular competitive multiplayer games across PC and console, and is a mainstay of Steam’s top 100 most-played games. For embattled publisher Ubisoft, it is a reliable earner at a time when new releases such as Star Wars: Outlaws and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant have struggled.

The addition of crossplay means players will be able to play with friends from other platforms seamlessly, with console players able to join the PC player pool. Squads including a PC player will be automatically moved to the PC-matchmaking pool. However, PC players will not have the option to join the console matchmaking pool. Console players who play Ranked playlists with crossplay active will maintain a PC rank that is separate from their console rank, Ubisoft explained.

The anticheat updates include improved cheater detection to ensure fairness, Ubisoft said. With the arrival of PC and console crossplay, players with a Mousetrap Penalty will be forced into the PC matchmaking pool for 90 days. If crossplay is turned off, these players will be unable to join matchmaking until the option is turned back on. Additionally, matches with a detected cheater will be automatically canceled with no impact on MMR. “These changes reflect Rainbow Six Siege’s ongoing commitment to player protection,” Ubisoft added.

Related, Ubisoft has overhauled the Reputation Center to provide a clearer overview of how different actions affect player standing and thresholds for receiving warnings or penalties. Account-related information such as rank, reputation, and match replays will be concentrated in the new Career hub, with account stats coming soon, Ubisoft clarified.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard now has an upgraded Adaptable Shield gadget, and the Siege Cup beta is available to all players above Clearance Level 50. Siege Cup is Siege’s most competitive playlist, where five-player squads compete in skill-based ladder tournaments for Competitive Coins that can be used to unlock exclusive skin collections every two weeks.

And finally, Season 4 makes changes to Ballistic Shields and balancing updates for Attacking Operators Ying and Sens. The number of bullets needed to suppress Shield Operators have been reduced to add value to suppressive fire and improve Shield Operator counterplay. This allows suppression to occur sooner and last for a longer duration, Ubisoft explained. Operators will not take damage from melee attacks while shielded, but guard break intensity from melee attacks will remain the same. Ying’s rush has been changed "to encourage more precise gameplay" in addition to Sens’ R.O.U. Projectors update "that allows for more flexible and creative play."

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].