It's undoubtedly true that Rainbow Six Mobile is one of the year's biggest mobile game releases, and there's a lot about this reimagining of the series that intrigued us. That's why we were very excited to sit down with Olivier Albarracin, a member of the team that built and developed this R6 iteration.
We asked Albarracin about the team's approach to Rainbow Six Mobile, the challenges they faced while making it, the potential of esports, and, naturally, whether a Rainbow Six mobile Solid Snake operator is a possibility. Will we be getting that Metal Gear Solid collab? Read what he had to say.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when approaching the making of a Rainbow Six game on mobile? Was a standard port of Siege ever on the table, or was it always going to be a different game?
Olivier Albarracin: We wanted to build a mobile-first experience from the ground up - that means everything from the touch controls to the HUD. So it wasn't about porting, it was really making sure that the uniqueness of Siege is translated. I think the biggest challenge, in particular, was compressing that complex tactical experience into the mobile format.
That's a bit more about the spatial awareness, the destruction, all the different operators, and the gadgets, and making sense of that on a small screen. Everyone has different-sized thumbs, and everyone has different-sized screens, so this was kind of the main challenge. We also had to improve clarity everywhere - the UI, the maps, the colors - and make sure that the session length made sense for mobile, so this is where we trimmed the maps to be a lot smaller in the exterior. We did have some non-negotiables, where the interior or combat needs to be one-to-one of what Siege is.
Regarding events, maps, and operators, are you planning to have parity with Siege, or is mobile a completely separate ecosystem?
We are definitely our own beast in that sense. We even have our own cadence and operations. Every month, we'll be releasing a new season or new operation that comes with an operator, a battle pass, and different game modes throughout the season. What's cool is we're actually going to have a special game mode at the start of each season that focuses on the new operator that we allow the players to play for free.
Because the operator is part of the battle pass, this allows the player to try the operator, understand the meta, and see if they want to invest more. Also, it gives us an opportunity to have some fun in the game, where we can have unique game modes. Then, for parity, we do have cross-promotions with Siege, and we're going to keep doing this throughout our lifetime. We also have landmark events, which are every other season, [which are] big events that come with a special game mode and a special shop with currencies, so players can get the stuff for free.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of those! What would you say to encourage a Siege player to try out Rainbow Six Mobile?
So I think the pitch is: it's Siege in your hands. We're not here to replace PC and console Siege. The medium is different. Maybe you're going to go out to see your parents, or you're going to be on the bus, and you want to still have that high-stakes feeling of being in a competitive shooter, and we kind of have that for the players. But also, I was just at the Six Invitational a week ago, and you see a lot of people come in, a group of friends, and they all clicked [with each other] and they could jump into a ranked match. It's very easy to do that without having to be on your rigs at home and doing your own thing, so it's really bringing the Siege experience to everyone in a different way.
Yeah, hopefully it will bring a lot of fans together. How has fan reaction been globally so far, compared to the regional release in South America last year?
Our game has really matured since [the South American launch] and we've focused a lot on communicating with our players. That was key to where we're at today, so our Latin America release was actually huge, because we kind of understood how to move from season to season, how to do different types of testing and understand the data, and work with the players. As for our worldwide launch, of course, different regions present different challenges - the APAC region, with Japan, for example, their play styles and what they like to do for their events differ compared to Europe and North America. But let's say the reception has been well-received. It's been a smooth rollout, and fans love the game. They've been grinding ranked really hard, and we're just excited for what's next in the seasons to come.
It must feel so gratifying to finally have it out there after all your hard work. What are your hopes for the impact of the game on the mobile gaming scene?
I think we've seen a lot of shooter games come and go on the mobile scene, and we have some dominant games. We think our game is very unique, and it would be great for more games to establish themselves, be a part of the competitive space, and allow players to play different alternative types of games there. So I think the success would be healthy for the market, and I'm hoping to be there for a long time with the team and the game.
Definitely. Is there anything you can tease about the future of R6 Mobile esports?
Our philosophy really is not to enforce esports onto the game. We really want to focus on trust with the players, security, and competitive integrity. Those are the three [principles] that we're really focusing on, and we're creating very extensive roadmaps throughout the year to ensure that the players are having a really good time in ranked - and that they have the tools to be able to grind and and reach the skill level they want to be at, and then also the tools to be able to maybe stream or cast these things to host tournaments. So that's the foundation. And our philosophy is that if we work on all of those, esports will be something that will be easy to grasp.
That makes sense. So in terms of crossovers, of course, there was the Metal Gear Solid crossover with Siege. What kind of collaborations might Mobile want to look at?
We would love to do collabs, just to be clear. However, we have 26 operators currently from Siege, which has just over 70, so we have a lot of roster to work through. And, as I was saying, one operator a month. It's not that we're not going to have Solid Snake in the future, I'm not saying that's not a possibility. But what we want to focus more on is the competitive scene, giving players more roles to play. And while Siege has a lot of great operators, we have a different meta, so we're going to see how the players interact with this, and see which operators make sense to introduce. But collabs would be amazing to have in our game, so maybe in the future we'll have some. Definitely stay tuned - I think we will have more news on that.
It seems like the fun isn't over yet, so make sure you give free mobile game Rainbow Six Mobile a try - you can log into Ubisoft Connect to get some fun rewards if you're already a Siege veteran. We'd love to thank Olivier Albarracin for his time.