During our recent coverage of the full Operation Para Bellum info page for Rainbow Six Siege, we speculated that the update, which is currently available on Siege’s test server, would launch in full sometime later in June. Now, it turns out Ubisoft planned to beat even our most generous expectations as Operation Para Bellum will officially launch for all platforms (PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4) tomorrow, June 7.
The official Operation Para Bellum info page we mentioned still doesn’t list any sort of release date, but the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account announced the expansion’s imminent release while also showing off a new fan-made drawing of the expansion’s two new operators, Alibi and Maestro.
Tomorrow is the day, Alibi and Maestro will join team Rainbow for the new season!
Check out @inkbyteart's take on the new Operators. pic.twitter.com/mp5WOdW9Ub
— Rainbow Six Siege (@Rainbow6Game) June 6, 2018
Speaking of Alibi and Maestro, they’ll be immediately available for use to owners of the Rainbow Six Siege Year Three Pass when Operation Para Bellum deploys tomorrow. Those who don’t own the pass will be able to purchase Alibi and Maestro next week starting on June 14. If you want a refresher on how Alibi and Maestro will function, be sure to check out our recent preview of the new operators and their associated unique gadgets.
Along with Alibi and Maestro, the Operation Para Bellum expansion will bring with it a host of other features, including a brand new map called Villa, an elite gear set for the operator Thatcher, a Pick/Ban feature for custom games, and a rework of the existing Clubhouse map. The expansion will also tweak a number of existing operators and also give a few of them a brand new gadget type, the bulletproof camera.
Lastly, Ubisoft will be removing the Tower map from Siege’s ranked playlist once Operation Para Bellum launches, and the studio explained its reasoning for doing so in a new blog post. In short, Ubisoft feels that the Tower map’s overall size and layout aren’t properly balanced for fair competitive play, and thus it will be taken out of the competitive map rotation.