Earlier this month, Ubisoft announced that to make its tactical shooter, Rainbow: Six Siege, ready to enter new Asian markets such as China, it will be removing in-game assets showing blood, sexual themes, gambling, and skulls with the next free expansion. Today, the company revealed that it has reversed that decision.
As the changes were almost ready to be pushed out with the upcoming Wind Bastion Operation, now the developer will be working to bring the game back to its original state. However, since this can take some time, Ubisoft asked players for some patience:
We will begin reverting these changes alongside the launch of Wind Bastion so no player is impacted; we ask you to be patient if some elements remain. We will carefully remove them all to the best of our ability considering the short timeframe and with the lowest impact on the season’s launch date and our build stability.
Elaborating on why it changed its mind, Ubisoft added that after listening to community feedback and internal discussions, it decided that the experience must remain "as true to the original artistic intent," especially for players who"ve been with the game "from the beginning."
This might also make Operation Wind Bastion"s release a bit delayed, which just landed on the Rainbow Six: Siege test server today with the new map and two operators. While Asian players will continue to play in the regular version, we could now see a separate client being released just for the new regions with the reverted changes, as the community requested beforehand.