Update:  Footage of Rainbow Six Siege's Morocco map has leaked, giving us a much more detailed look at the Atlas Mountains stronghold. The leak comes courtesy of Redditor velocitycontrol, who alleges that the video comes from Ubisoft Thailand. 

From the inside, it looks more like a self-contained city than a fortress. It's an elaborate, multi-levelled affair, and I suspect it's going to take a bit of time for everyone to memorise its nooks and crannies. Good thing we're sneaking this early look, then.

Update: Ubisoft has revealed more about what's coming in year 3 season 4 of Rainbow Six Siege, Operation Wind Bastion, which will see two members of Morocco's Groupe d'Intervention de La Gendarmerie Royale [GIGR, not to be confused with France's GIGN] special operations unit join the fight. The first operator, a Defender, is the commander of the unit, "as stoic as the mountains are immovable," Ubisoft said. "Strict and imposing, he inspires respect and has taken it upon himself to guide the future of Moroccan Special Forces." 

Keeping the cosmos in balance, the second operator is an Attacker: "She’s among the few explorers who can cross the Sahara, climb up the Alps, trek through Asia’s rainforests, march along the Arctic Circle…and still return to her unit in operational shape. Perceptive and resourceful, she’s an expert on environmental operations with a knack for pushing the enemy back." 

The map Ubisoft teased earlier today is a fortress in the Atlas Mountains that apparently serves as a GIGR training facility. "You’ll have the rare opportunity to test your skills inside a stunning mudbrick kasbah," Ubisoft said. "Enjoy unprecedented roof access, but do try to stay focused despite the breathtaking oasis just next door." 

The full Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Wind Bastion reveal will take place on November 18 during the Pro League finals.   

Original story:

We’ve known that Rainbow Six Siege would be taking a trip to Morocco for a year, but until now we’ve not known much more than that. Ubisoft’s first vague teaser for the new map, appearing on Twitter yesterday evening, doesn’t really change that. It does, however, suggest that the wait won’t be much longer. 

Accompanying a sedate gif featuring billowing curtains in a dusty but ornate room, there’s a brief message in Arabic: “Welcome to Morocco”.

Minor changes made to the global version of the game ahead of its launch in China have not gone down well with a vocal, review-bombing section of the community, so Ubisoft is undoubtedly keen to move discussion towards new maps and operators. It might be working, too, as responses to the announcement on Twitter only rarely reference the changes. 

Following last week’s announcement that Ubisoft would be tweaking the aesthetics of Rainbow Six Siege maps and UI to comply with Chinese game regulations, the most vocal corner of the game’s community is in an uproar. Over the weekend, upset fans bombarded Siege with negative reviews, dropping its reception to “mixed” on Steam. In the past few days, almost 1,500 negative reviews have appeared, the vast majority of them condemning Ubi’s alterations for the Chinese market.

The fervor has been mostly centered around the game’s official subreddit. Many users see Ubi’s willingness to change anything about the game to appeal to China as offensive, as posts with tens of thousands of collective upvotes rose to the top of the subreddit.

“By adhering to Chinese censorship they are cooperating with a dictatorship. Like wtf Ubi you can't do this shit! This against what the West stands for!” exclaimed a post by redditor Zarvoth. The most active post on the subject, with more than 28,000 upvotes, came from redditor Qwikskoupa69, who said “If you are changing the game to fit a fascist countries' [sic] standards then you might as well remove [Tom Clancy’s] name because he is rolling in his grave right now. This game resembles nothing of that what he wrote.” Other popular posts include a military veteran who is quitting Siege over Ubi’s “surrendering” to China and someone who crushed their copy of the game in protest.

The most recent batch of Steam reviews for the game read like an echo of the subreddit. “A well-known game company to bow his head to a fascist government is disgraceful. Why should every player in the world obey a bully? You're sending a message that bullying works. Restricting liberty works,” said user Cthonic.

The passion behind these posts may make it seem like Siege is being overhauled completely for a new market, but the reality is much less dramatic. Ubisoft is planning an expansion for Siege into Asian territories, most notably China, which has a historically harsh and slow regulation process for games. It’s not uncommon for developers to change their game for its Chinese release, as things like gambling references and excessive gore aren’t allowed. What’s uncommon is a developer adopting these changes for all versions of the game, not just a regionalized Chinese release. This is why Ubi is taking heat, as it has decided to adopt some of these changes to its global version. As seen below, the global alterations are limited to small aesthetic features on maps and bits of the user interface.

For more drastic changes that would affect gameplay, Ubi is creating a separate region-locked build, like many other developers do. Ubisoft’s explanation for making the smaller aesthetic changes global is simply that it's practical. “By maintaining a single build, we are able to reduce the duplication of work on the development side,” the dev blog reads.

Part of the backlash is at least in part due to the confusing way Ubisoft went about the announcement. Its original post makes no mention of a region-locked branch of the game, only a single global version. It wasn’t until hours later that community representatives clarified that a regionalized version will exist. But that update didn’t seem to reach everyone and has caused plenty of misinformation, as redditor CoupeontheBeat’s post with more than 12,000 upvotes (written hours after the clarification had been issued) exemplifies.

Some prominent members of the Siege community have shrugged off the alterations as no big deal, as long as they don’t impact gameplay. Pengu, a member of Siege’s top rated esports team G2, doesn’t believe all the backlash is warranted. “I truly do not see people’s issue with this, it literally does not affect you in ANY WAY POSSIBLE,” he said in a Friday Twitter thread. G2’s captain Fabian had similar thoughts. “You lose something you never knew you had before aka slot machines on the wall or some preset blood on a wall in Skyscraper, no biggie.”

Siege Pro League commentator Parker “Interro” Mackay dismissed Reddit’s backlash in a sarcastic tweet, then elaborated by calling them “harmless aesthetic changes that allows hundreds of millions to now access the game.” Fellow Pro League commentator Michael “Kixstar” Stockley shared a similar stance. “Guess I'll weigh in on the aesthetic change: Gameplay not changing? Don't care.”

Reddit has made enough noise that we could see a response by Ubisoft this week. Perhaps the work saved by implementing some alterations to all versions simply isn’t worth the headache of the past few days, misinformation or not. Either way, with Year 3 Season 4 on the horizon with two new operators and a new map, this is probably the last thing Ubi wants dominating conversation around the game.

Rainbow Six Siege players may soon find a few small, confusing changes to some of their favorite maps. If you find yourself wondering where all the slot machines on Clubhouse went or why there’s a new symbol for teamkills, the answer to both is the same: Siege is coming to Asia.

A new dev blog by Ubisoft is very forthcoming about the upcoming changes and why they’re being made. “We are currently working towards preparing Rainbow Six Siege for expansion into Asian territories. As such, there will be some adjustments made to our maps and icons to ensure compliance. None of these changes will have an impact on gameplay,” the post reads. 

Here are some examples of the changes being made.

China has a historically harsh and slow regulation process for games that have driven developers and publishers to make adjustments in order to qualify for the world’s biggest market for games. In 2007, World of Warcraft’s Chinese publisher at the time The9 removed skeletons from the game entirely. As recently as August, Tencent, the largest game conglomerate in Asia, had trouble with the approval process for Fortnite because of an apparent regulatory freeze from China on all games.

The China-specific regulations that developers must adhere to are pretty nonspecific and open to interpretation. Here’s a handy breakdown provided by TechInAsia. China’s Ministry of Culture forbids:

• Gambling-related content or game features
• Anything that violates China’s constitution
• Anything that threatens China’s national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity.
• Anything that harms the nation’s reputation, security, or interests.
• Anything that instigates racial/ethnic hatred, or harms ethnic traditions and cultures.
• Anything that violates China’s policy on religion by promoting cults or superstitions.
• Anything that promotes or incites obscenity, drug use, violence, or gambling.
• Anything that harms public ethics or China’s culture and traditions.
• Anything that insults, slanders, or violates the rights of others.
• Other content that violates the law

As TechInAsia explains, the murkiness of these guidelines can make developers risk-averse when they go to submit their game for approval. In the case of WoW, the complete removal of skeletons might not have been necessary. But it might have also been worth avoiding the hassle of being rejected and going back for reapproval.

The same reasoning may apply directly to Siege and its skull iconography on the Clubhouse map and in the killfeed UI. Does the use of a skull to communicate killing someone promote superstition? Does a skull wearing a hood and with hair put it over the top? Ubi may be asking themselves the very same questions, but would clearly rather bypass the issue altogether than find out.

Though the post doesn't mention it, I wonder if we should expect some changes to some of Siege's cosmetic items, which include stuff like demon masks, skeleton face paint, and gore. On the other hand, Ubisoft could simply elect to regionalize cosmetics rather than making all of them available in all regions. 

In a response to the announcement on Reddit, Siege community manager UbiNoty clarified that the game will actually have a regional version of the game for Asia. "Moving forward, we do recognize and understand that for some elements, it is not possible to have a completely global build. Thus, there will be some things that are split build-wise. While our goal is to maintain as close a parallel as possible between builds, we will also not compromise the core integrity of the gameplay and mechanics as they exist currently," the statement reads. What exactly will be changed only for Asia wasn't specified, but it could have to do with the game's blood content or in-game cosmetics. Aesthetic changes will be global to all versions, but core gameplay could be changed for Asian regions.

For the most part, Ubi’s alterations seem graceful enough to still evoke the same vibe from the map, but I’m curious to see what other small changes players will find when the alterations go live. Ubi didn’t mention when that will be, but I would guess it’ll come at the same time as Year 3 Season 4, expected in early December.