Rainbow Six Mobile is, in simple terms, a mobile version of Rainbow Six Siege. When you dig deeper though, you soon discover that a new team of developers from around Ubisoft’s global collection of studios has built this title from scratch. The idea was always there, but this is far from the easiest path the company could have taken to reach a mobile version of one of the most popular shooters on the planet. There are many differences between Rainbow Six Mobile and Siege, so to ascertain what makes Mobile so unique, we spoke with the game’s Lead Game Designer Oliver Albarracin, and Production Manager Sue Peterson.
With dozens of Operators in Rainbow Six Siege to choose from, we wanted to know how the team narrowed it down to just ten for Rainbow Six Mobile, at least at launch. Oliver explained, “We selected Operators and Maps based on things like the community appreciation, how healthy the meta would be, and how balanced they were. How the different Operators can synergize together to make interesting team compositions.” Players have learned their favorite Operators after years with Rainbow Six Siege, and now fans will need to do the same with Rainbow Six Mobile. Balancing is incredibly important because one overpowered Operator can sway every match to one team across any map. “We worked with the original Rainbow Six Siege team to help refine our choices and to make sure they will be technically sound in the future.” If anyone knows how to build an Operator roster that can stand the test of time, it’s the Rainbow Six Siege team. However, the addition of mobile-specific controls and features could favor unexpected Operators like Sledge when Rainbow Six Mobile launches.
It wasn’t a smooth copy and paste job though. Oliver added, “We also had to adapt and innovate some of the abilities to make sense more for mobile. Making them more approachable, understandable, and optimized for mobile controls and screen space.” These are the controls that could make Rainbow Six Mobile a completely different game from Rainbow Six Siege.
Considering how much Rainbow Six Mobile takes from Rainbow Six Siege, we wanted to know how involved the console and PC team was in the development of the smartphone equivalent. “We collaborated with the Rainbow Six Siege team in Montreal as well as with seven other studios, all with their own different expertise,” Sue said. It shows that both teams have been integrated from the start, which should mean that Rainbow Six Mobile provides players with the same enjoyable tactical shooter experience from day one.
When we asked how the team had prepared for issues around launch, given how Rainbow Six Siege was initially received by fans seven years ago, Sue added, “we are planning to work closely with the community during test phases to refine the game for the best experience on mobile” This sounds like the perfect approach and one that fans will almost certainly be on board with. Rainbow Six Siege provides such an individual experience, and a lot of work needs to be done to bottle that and give it to Rainbow Six Mobile players.
It’s difficult to move away from the idea that Rainbow Six Mobile is a port of Rainbow Six Siege. We asked Oliver what made this game stand out from its older sister, and he said, “Rainbow Six Mobile is its own game, with exclusive features that are tailored for mobile. These features include shorter matches, new modes, optimized controls, and more. We even have our own innovative features such as a Gadget Preview system which helps players utilize their gadgets better, and an Audio Compass which helps players visually see if gunshots are coming from upstairs or down.” With the mention of these new features, we’re satisfied for now that Rainbow Six Mobile will have a distinct look and feel in the Rainbow Six universe. The audio compass sounds particularly interesting and we imagine it’ll be as useful as it was in Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops’ multiplayer.
Oliver went on to tell us about some other steps the team has taken to optimize Rainbow Six Mobile specifically for smartphone users. “We have also taken iconic maps like Bank and Border and have optimized them for mobile. For example, we removed ladders and used more lighting to improve how players navigate around the map. We made choices to optimize the mobile experience while keeping the core of what Siege is and when you play it, you really feel like it’s Siege in your hands.” It’s hard to get our heads around what the implications of this on moment-to-moment gameplay will be, but it certainly sounds as if rappelling is going to be a primary form of vertical mobility.
Oliver mentioned that matches, in particular, are where the action is, “Rainbow Six Mobile will have faster matches, tighter gunplay, and optimized navigation so players can focus more on tactical strategy: the positioning of the player and using destruction and environment to outwit your opponents.” However, the danger with a shift to mobile platforms is that players won’t communicate. Sue hinted at how the team had built-in features to combat this though. “This game is all about teamwork! Players will strategize with their teammates and outwit the enemy team together. We’ll introduce some great new modes that will make communicating with teammates feel even more natural.”
It almost seems as though the team made life more difficult than it needed to be by building Rainbow Six Mobile from scratch. We asked what the most challenging part of that development process was, and Oliver revealed, “our philosophy was to keep the core of what Rainbow Six Siege is while optimizing the experience for mobile. Siege is a complex game, from the different Operator gadgets to gathering intel from your drone, creating lines of sights, and using destruction to outwit your opponents. We needed to recreate all those core mechanics, but to allow the player to execute all those actions seamlessly and naturally so they can focus more on tactical strategy.” All of these are core mechanics and essential to the Rainbow Six Siege experience, and rebuilding that based on something another team has made must bring with it a feeling that you’re trying to make lightning strike twice in the exact same spot. Oliver added that “we did this by adapting the controls, shortening matches, and smoothing animation transitions. We have also created an array of comfort settings and HUD customization so that players can really tailor the controls to their playstyle.” It certainly sounds like the proof will be in the pudding with this one since controls, HUD, and UI are what sets it apart. The game can’t feel like the worse version of Rainbow Six Siege for less powerful devices, yet it still needs to deal with technical limitations, as is evident in its lower-quality character models.
We ended our questions with a subject that’s near and dear to the hearts of Rainbow Six Siege fans: how does each Operator feel to play, and what tweaks or cuts, if any, had to be made for Rainbow Six Mobile? Oliver surprised us once more by telling us, “Having a smooth and seamless experience was paramount from the beginning. The gameplay is the same as Rainbow Six Siege, and the controls are adapted to reproduce the same experience on the touchscreen, which after a few minutes can feel natural.” There’s no question that Rainbow Six Siege feels like a very different shooter than most. There’s a realistic heft to each Operator that forces players to be far more strategic in their movements than they would be in something with increased movement speed like Call of Duty: Warzone.
“Some of the mobile adaptations the team has enabled include auto sprinting, sprint locking, auto vaulting, and auto ADS (aim down sights) on fire. We’ve developed the innovative tactical focus, double-tap to melee, and a dozen other adaptations.” These additions feel like innovations for Rainbow Six Mobile, features that will set it apart from Rainbow Six Siege in a big way. Tactical shooting is at the heart of this game, and that’s what will separate it from competitors such as Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile.
Ultimately, this means that Operators will feel about the same to control as they do in Rainbow Six Siege once you’re used to the game’s compensation techniques and features. However, there’s a subtle nuance to using each gadget, and players get into a rhythm with their favorite Operators and how they move after a while. To work around this, “We designed the gadgets to be more approachable and compatible with the mobile device, making sure that when you equip a gadget it’s easy to use.”
The game goes further than this though, working on the (pretty safe) assumption that players won’t have a clue how Rainbow Six Siege matches are usually played. “We have systems like the ‘Gadget Preview’ System which helps players understand how to use a gadget better. Such as the throw arc of a grenade to do a fancy bounce shot or to see the radius of the explosion of an impact on a soft wall. We have also developed HUD systems like the: Gadget Interaction Feedback: This system provides feedback to the Player when any gadget interacts with them. For example, if you successfully jam a drone or one of your magpie’s are destroyed, you will get a small notification indicating any interactions with gadgets.” Sue explained.
It certainly sounds as though great care has been taken to preserve the essence of Rainbow Six Siege and bring it over to mobile devices in Rainbow Six Mobile. The team seems genuinely passionate about the project, and their focus is on bringing more new players into the fold as well as pleasing veterans of Rainbow six Siege. No other approach will work for a project like this. Until we’ve got our hands on the game later this year, we can’t be sure of anything though. This game will live or die depending on how players feel it treats the source material, and how monetization has been changed. We asked but received no answer on whether Rainbow Six Mobile will feature the same maps and Operators as Rainbow Six Siege forever, or if it will have a similar yearly and seasonal pass model. It would be very easy to kill this game within days of its launch with poor, pay-to-win monetization, and a distinct refusal to veer anywhere near that territory in Rainbow Six Siege is part of why that game continues to be so popular after seven years of continuous updates.
