Ubisoft Montreal, developers of Rainbow Six Siege confirms that it is taking action against players that are AFKing in the game. Given that Rainbow Six Siege is a tactical shooter, and is widely considered as one of the best in the genre, it requires a bigger focus on teamwork and coordination than most other competitive FPS.
Even though it is designed around objective-based gameplay, the development team has also been working hard to add a standard Team Deathmatch mode for Rainbow Six Siege. It will be called Warmup and will be aimed at giving players a mode where they can relax and practice their shooting skills. It will also allow players to drop in and out whenever they desire, without the fear of facing a penalty. However, if the studio has its way, players who regularly AFK in normal matches are in for a rude awakening.
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This information of AFK sanctions comes from a Tweet from the official Twitter account of Rainbow Six Siege. It mentions that the development team has become aware of players taking advantage of AFK methods in recent weeks. Starting today, manual sanctions will be handed to all players that are abusing this behavior. Furthermore, it promises that the development team will be considering design decisions that can help remove this practice from Rainbow Six Siege. In addition, new automatic AFK detection methods and sanctions will be added to the game.
The Tweet ends with the developers asking their audience to report players that are abusing this mechanic. Some fans have responded to the Tweet by mentioning other aspects of the game they are dissatisfied with, particularly the use of mouse and keyboard on consoles. Given the popularity of Rainbow Six Siege, there are bound to be some toxic players that solely aim to disrupt the experience of others.
AFK methods are not the only problem, as Rainbow Six Siege also happens to have a lot of rage quitters. Since the game is designed around teamwork and careful utilization of unique abilities, any sort of AFK methods or rage quits can severely impact the outcome of the match. As an unfortunate side effect of these issues, some Operators do not even get a chance to contribute to the team in a meaningful way.
Regardless of these problems, there is no evidence to indicate that Rainbow Six Siege is becoming less popular. The concurrent player count is higher than ever, and Ubisoft is also taking part in a surprising collaboration with the Resident Evil series. As a result of this partnership, Leon’s look from Resident Evil 4 was added to Rainbow Six Siege as a skin.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.