Rainbow Six Siege Hit 25 Million Players, Operation White Noise Update Released

Ubisoft has released the next big expansion for Rainbow Six Siege. With the game recently celebrating its two-year anniversary, we've now gotten Operation White Noise, which adds the usual array of new Operators (plus one extra), a new map, and other content to the shooter on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

White Noise's biggest additions are those Operators. With this being a South Korea-themed update, two of them hail from the 707th Special Mission Battalion. Dokkaebi is an Attacker whose unique gear is the Logic Bomb, which allows her to hack enemy devices and reveal their position with a loud noise. Vigil is a Defender who has access to the Electronic Rendering Cloak, or ERC-7, which prevents him from being seen on cameras. In addition to those two, we get a third Operator, this one from the canceled Poland expansion. Zofia Bosak uses the KS79 Lifeline, a grenade launcher capable of firing both explosive and concussive rounds.

As is typical of Siege expansions, these characters are now available to Year 2 season pass owners for free; everyone else will be able to purchase them using in-game currency beginning on December 12. All players do get something for free right away, as the new Mok Myeok Tower map is available to everyone. This is set near the top of a skyscraper observation tower, which is home to a variety of different environments and places an emphasis on verticality.

Besides the new content, Ubisoft hopes to make some improvements to the game with this update. This includes testing "new synchronization logic for some projectiles," most notably including grenades. The goal is to prevent issues where the position of grenades suddenly change--such as one appearing right back in your face after you throw it. Additionally, your movement will now be factored in, so that throwing a grenade while you're on the run will cause it to go further.

The rate of fire on handguns has also been increased and new UI elements should make it easier to track buffs and debuffs. And, of course, a variety of bug fixes have been made impacting specific maps, weapons, and Operators. You can check out the full list here. All of this coincides with Ubisoft announcing that Siege has eclipsed the 25 million players mark.