Ubisoft has just announced the soft launch of Privacy Mode.
Formerly known as Streamer Mode, Privacy Mode is "back from the drawing board" after some developer improvements based on community feedback. The soft launch of the new Privacy Mode starts today.
"We want development on Privacy Mode to be iterative, with a cycle of taking feedback, making improvements, and live (but restricted) testing throughout," Ubisoft said of the soft launch. "This will let us improve the mode for everyone by working closely with players who actively use and stress-test it."
When is Privacy Mode coming to Rainbow Six Sidge?
The heavily anticipated new version of Streamer Mode is planning to be officially released in full mid-2022. But the date isn't set since developers will only release Privacy Mode once the soft launch participants are "happy" with the experience.
Privacy Mode will come to PC players first once the team is satisfied with the feedback. It will come to console players after.
What is Privacy Mode? Is Streamer Mode back in Rainbow Six Siege?
In August 2021, Ubisoft released an article discussing the top issues and community concerns from Rainow Six players, which focused on content creator protection. This prompted developers to implement changes to Rainbow Six Siege that would protect the privacy of all players, including streamers.
Some of the main concerns were stream sniping and protecting account data from third-party sites and apps. To prevent stream sniping, which is when in-game trolls watch a live stream to get unfair information about a streamers' location and strategy, Ubisoft introduced new privacy options.
- Appear as a nickname: This let players create a temporary display name used in-game.
- Appear as "you": This replaced a player's name on screen with "you" so live stream viewers couldn't see the actual username.
- Hide other players: Pseudonyms used for all usernames shown on a streamer's screen during matches except their own. This included teammates and opponents.
- Account identity privacy: This aimed to conceal Ubisoft account names and profile avatars, not allowing stream snipers to use third-party tools to reveal a streamer's identity.
Said Ubisoft: "Rest assured that this topic remains a top priority on the Rainbow Six Siege development team and across Ubisoft. The Player Behavior team and the different stakeholders involved are committed to protecting our players' personal identity and providing a safer environment for our players."
Unfortunately, Streamer Mode wasn't a success. Rainbow Six Siege players were not impressed with the results. After community backlash, Streamer Mode was removed. Now, Ubisoft is hoping to improve on the mode with the soft launch of Privacy Mode.
Rainbow Six Siege players are generally excited to see the new and improved Privacy Mode announced. But some players brought up concerns that scammers and hackers will use Privacy Mode to their advantage. Most people just responded that they wanted to see cross-play in Rainbow Six Siege instead.