Ubisoft announced that the Operation Blood Orchid update for Rainbow Six Siege is now available to Season Pass holders on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The company said the update is the biggest in the game's history, with more than 1,000 changes to its engine, maps, and operators. Everyone who doesn't own a Season Pass will gain access to this additional content when it's released on September 12.
Rainbow Six Siege is the ultimate comeback kid. The game was greeted by tepid reviews and a relatively small community when it debuted in December 2015, but after major updates throughout 2016, it's been much better received by critics and players alike. Operation Blood Orchid is part of Ubisoft's continued effort to keep those game-defining updates coming to make sure the squad-based shooter doesn't grow stale.
Here's what the company said about Operation Blood Orchid in a press release:
To mark the culmination of Operation Health, Operation Blood Orchid will be the largest update for 'Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege' ever deployed, bringing fixes and improvements to the game, including an updated lighting system, data clean-ups on operators, optimized stability, reduced load times and a smaller memory footprint. New and improved servers will also be deployed around the launch of Season 3 to enhance stability, connectivity and overall performance.
In addition to those under-the-hood improvements, Operation Blood Orchid will bring a new map and operators to Rainbow Six Siege. The map is an abandoned theme park that, according to Ubisoft, is "a colourful and eclectic map filled with dynamic and fast-paced face-offs." The operators are divided into teams: The SDU has gained two new operators, Ying and Lesion, and they're accompanied by a Polish GROM operator called Ela.
Operation Blood Orchid will contain numerous other updates. Ubisoft said it's working to address hit registration issues, making changes to the game's balance, and reducing the number of maps in the Ranked map rotation to allow players to "hone their skills in the most competitive environment available." All of these changes ought to help ensure Rainbow Six Siege can continue to grow in popularity while also appeasing existing players.
You can find out more about this update on the Rainbow Six Siege website. The Year 2 Season Pass that offers early access to updates like Operation Blood Orchid is available from Uplay, the Microsoft Store, the PlayStation Store, and Steam for $30. (Note that you have to buy the base game separately.)
