Rainbow Six Siege fans noticed something different on the official website this morning.
Ubisoft has removed all of the biographies of the Russian operators. When you go to a Russian operators' page, it now displays their role, abilities, and loadout — then it skips their biographies and psychological reports.
Ubisoft has been quite vocal about its position on the conflict in Ukraine. Earlier this month, the publisher halted sales of Rainbow Six Siege and their other titles in Russia. They also announced that they were donating to Ukrainian families in need and providing support to team members in the war-torn country.
"Our top priority is to take care of the safety and wellbeing of our teams and their families. Over the past months, Ubisoft has been closely monitoring the situation, and our primary focus has been the security of our teams," Ubisoft said earlier this month.
The Rainbow Six Siege community has commended Ubisoft for supporting Ukraine but has found the in-game actions to be frustrating. Many expressed anger with Ubisoft for removing the biographies, claiming that the company is using Rainbow Six Siege to "virtue signal."
Others have blatantly stated that changing anything in the game is pointless, saying it's "just a video game."
Said one angry Redditor: "Well then, it’s time for Russia to give up invading Ukraine. Without the bios of the operators, there’s no way Russia can win."
Said another: "We did it, everyone! We have won the war!"
"Russia sure do be trembling right now," added another Rainbow Six player.
There were also some who felt it was an "overreaction," pointing out that Ubisoft never touched operators from other countries when those countries were involved in a conflict. It's possible that Ubisoft removed the Russian operators' bios because Tachanka had fought in Ukraine, which may be too close to home for some players. But others pointed out that this wasn't ever an issue in the past.
"Thermite served in Iraq and I believe Blackbeard served in Afghanistan and Ubi can’t tell me that their armies didn’t do bad shit either," one gamer said.
Ubisoft has not discussed the decision to remove Russian operators' biographies, so it's not yet clear what the company's actual aim in doing so was. Other publishers have behaved similarly, including FIFA removing Russian players from the game. It's unclear how long these changes will stick.