Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege to add Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher as an operator

Video game icon Sam Fisher is coming to another hit Ubisoft property in the form of Rainbow Six Siege after two decades of sneaking his way across the world in numerous high-profile missions in the Splinter Cell franchise. Under the code name “Zero”, Sam Fisher will play as an attacking operator, using a two-way drill camera known as the Argus Launcher to always stay one (or two) steps ahead of the opposition. The Argus Launcher pierces soft or reinforced walls, windows, and hatches and is capable of sticking to any surface inside the game.

Once Sam Fisher activates his premier gadget, he can spy through to the other side of the terrain that the Argus Launcher is attached to, also allowing him a single laser charge from his camera that can be used to damage Defenders or their trusty gadgets. Sam Fisher is all about intel and gadget denial. Those two things are already explored in the Rainbow Six Siege, but the new area of gameplay is that Sam Fisher has a tool that is able to go through walls and reinforcements without destroying them, and that is new.

There was an additional layer in creating Sam Fisher, a gadget that fits him. And from that, developers had to start the operator process a bit differently, that had to do with something that fit in Rainbow Six Siege but was still very much Sam Fisher. Although the idea of one of Ubisoft’s legends joining forces with one of its most popular ongoing games felt like a slam dunk from the first time it was proposed, the development team wants to make sure the fans of the Splinter Cell franchise know that their hero is not going to play the same as he does in the Splinter Cell franchise.

While the developers have brought elements of Sam Fisher’s essence into the game through the gadgets they have crafted for him to torment his rivals, Splinter Cell fans who look to play Rainbow Six Siege like a covert sneak mission are going to end up having a less than ideal time.

The introduction of Sam Fisher is also another step in Ubisoft’s evolution of adding new characters inside the game. Generally, for each addition of an operator into Rainbow Six Siege, there would be a second character also joining the ranks. As the game’s roster has blossomed over the years since the game’s official release in April 2015, the development team has made a decision to slow down on adding characters, looking to continue their mission of having each new operator either bring something entirely new to the Rainbow Six Siege world or add a special twist to something already inside the game.

A slew of operators inside Rainbow Six Siege already know about the art of reconnaissance, but Sam Fisher is prepared to show the young’uns how it is done. Sam Fisher has a pretty balanced role. It is funny, because looking at it as a fan, it is like an instructor coming in to train the operators. Sam Fisher has a really advanced kit. And of course, right now we know it is tough to find a place in the meta as a part of the Attackers composition, so it is difficult to say for now if Sam Fisher will find one, but with such a balanced kit, maybe he will find a place at the pro level.

When asked if Sam Fisher’s arrival could mean the door opening for other characters from other iconic gaming franchises at having a chance to join the Rainbow Six Siege roster, developers mentioned that though this will not be the beginning of a new trend overtaking the game, that door is open. The obvious connection within the company made the Sam Fisher licensing straightforward, whilst any other popular character outside of the Ubisoft umbrella would take an agreement between two sides. For the developers, however, it is less of how big of a name a character can bring to Rainbow Six Siege, but how they can shift and fit the landscape that they have already carefully curated over the past five years.

As the developers have done with all their newfound operators, they threw Sam Fisher into the wringer of testing that eventually led to the best professional Rainbow Six Siege players in the world getting their hands on him to test out.

While the pro workshops can be hit-or-miss in terms of how much they like a new operator, the development team sometimes see how much they can “play with fire” with their characters, Sam Fisher’s balanced, all-around kit received two thumbs up from the pros that got their hands on him. Sam Fisher is definitely stealthy. You have to play relatively patiently, maybe a bit more than other operators.

You also have to play clever. Sam Fisher has great guns, but if you want to make the most out of him, you can not be a run-n-gun player, you have to think. Sam Fisher will be available in the upcoming third season of Rainbow Six Siege’s fifth year, Operation Shadow Legacy. Rainbow Six Siege is available to play on Sony‘s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.

Along with the Splinter Cell legend, the new season will also include a reworked Chalet map and additional game features, including a reworked ping system and a map veto system. The Test Server for Operation Shadow Legacy will go live on August 17, 2020.

In July 2020, Ubisoft announced plans to shake up its work culture in response to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the company.

Former creative chief Serge Hascoet behaved inappropriately around women and even prevented a female character from becoming a lead in the game “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey”. Hascoet and two other top executives of Ubisoft resigned following an investigation into allegations of misconduct.