Rainbow Six Siege to introduce Outbreak Pack loot boxes locked behind paywall

Yesterday, Ubisoft announced the upcoming changes to its retail offerings, including the Standard Edition being replaced by the more expensive and ever-so-slightly more robust Advanced Edition. Included within the announcement are details of Outbreak Packs, Siege’s event counterpart of its Alpha Packs but instead of being earned in-game, these loot boxes will only be available via premium paid-for currency.

Outbreak is the four-week event that will be introduced at the start of Year 3 Season 1, a first for Rainbow Six Siege, in which three players team up to “take on a mysterious threat” and earn in-game items while doing so.  While “a few other Outbreak rewards will be available through game play, and will be awarded based on other criteria to be disclosed at a later date,” the real allure is Outbreak Packs.

The Outbreak Collection found within Outbreak Packs is comprised of 50 unique items exclusive to the new loot boxes, 1 of which is an Outbreak Collection exclusive of the Elite uniform set to be introduced in Year 3 Season 1. The other items will range between Rare, Epic and Legendary in rarity and won’t contain duplicates like its Alpha Pack counterpart. And just to make sure, four packs will be awarded just for logging in during the event.

Controversially, Ubisoft has locked these Outbreak Packs behind a paywall, as they will not be available for in-game currency such as Renown, but instead purchasable only via R6 Credits, Siege’s premium currency. Each pack will cost 300 R6 Credits, meaning a total of 13,800 R6 Credits which is the equivalent of £80 will be required to unlock everything the timed event’s Collection has to offer.

Outbreak’s Collection is comprised of cosmetic gear only, so players won’t be missing out on too much via the paywall, but they might not be able to get new gear for their favourite operators, in which the two new Chimera Ops are included as well as Smoke, Ying, Buck, Kapkan, Hibana, Zofia, Fuze, Ash, Doc, Thermite, Tachanka and Glaz.

Anyone just purchasing the game from the Advanced Edition and up once the new retail changes are in will be blessed with 10 Outbreak Packs regardless of the event’s end, the four for logging in during the event time and 600 R6 Credits, which is worth two packs. With the 16 pack advantage, it’ll only cost you 10,800 R6 Credits or £68.99 to unlock the lot.

KitGuru Says: I’ve defended Siege’s approach to monetisation, albeit super expensive, for quite some time. This feels a little less inclusive than its in-game-only Alpha Packs or direct cosmetic purchases, however, and is starting to head the same way as other, more controversial titles in its direction. How do you feel about the Outbreak Packs? Personally with the majority of content behind a paywall, I see even less reason to delve into the experience.  

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