Rainbow Six Siege Gets Starter Edition

A common trend for video game releases these days is to include several different releases for video games. From the limited edition copies including models, special boxes and unique giveaways to your bonus editions with special skins and season passes included, buying a game is no longer as simple as popping to your local store and grabbing a copy from the counter. Ubisoft has taken a rather rare step with the release of a new version of Rainbow Six Siege, the starter edition.

Much like when Call of Duty: Black Ops III received a multiplayer starter pack edition, the new Starter Edition comes with strings attached for anyone that wants to pick up the latest Rainbow Six game for £11.99.

The starter edition gives you everything you’d get in the full version of the game but with a catch. You start the game with two operators unlocked, with you getting either Rook, Sledge, Ash, Fuze, Mute or Smoke for free. To unlock another two, of your choice, you get 600 R6 Credits (credits which you’ll pay real money for), with each operator costing 300 R6 credits a piece.

To unlock any of the other operators you’re looking at 12,500 renown (in game credits) or another 300 R6 credits, the Steam page isn’t shy telling you that it would take around 15 hours of gameplay to unlock an operator using the in-game credits. With post-launch operators costing 25,000 renown your looking at a hefty price unless you’re willing to buy the Season pass or part with 600 in game credits. With operators costing up to 2,000 renown in the full game, charging you over 6 times that for any single operator seems a bit steep to me.

Could this be a sign of bad sales for the game, and would you pay less if you had to work more in-game to unlock everything it has to offer? Be warned, the starter edition seems to only be available as a “sale” item for two weeks so if you’re interested, grab it soon.