The People's Republic of China approved on August 1 fifteen imported video games, including Rainbow Six Siege and Rainbow Six Mobile. With these new additions, the Chinese government has already approved 75 imported video games this year — only 23 licenses behind last year's tally, which was 98.
Although Ubisoft is behind the development of Rainbow Six Mobile, their team is getting additional help from WeGame, Tencent's flagship game portal. In 2018, Tencent acquired 5% of Ubisoft and invested an extra US$300M in September 2022.
Additionally, Tencent is also the owner of Riot Games, which develops Valorant and League of Legends, among others. These two titles have a huge impact not just in China's but also in Asia's gaming market.
Although it was supposed to be released somewhen 2024, the game's official X account unveiled that "we'll be pausing new content for the time being to let us focus on enhancing key elements of the game." Therefore, it's likely Rainbow Six Mobile is finally released on 2025.
However, things get a bit more messier when talking about Rainbow Six Siege in China. In June 2018, Ubisoft announced plans to create an international version of the game. However, the decision was met with backlash from the fans, as the elimination of some elements from the title like skulls or blood would make no sense in a game about police operatives and terrorists. On the other hand, it would make it easier for Ubisoft to sell the game in China.
Since then, changes have been made slowly but steadily, like the elimination of various map elements in Clubhouse or the replacement of dead bodies with the logo of the dead operator.