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Rainbow Six Siege kicks off sixth year today with new season Crimson Heist

And a free play week starts on Thursday.

Ubisoft's online tactical shooter Rainbow Six Siege officially enters its sixth year of content updates today, 16th March, and things kick off with the launch of new season Crimson Heist on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Crimson Heist's flagship addition is new operator Flores, a "sly and tactical" Attacker character hailing from Argentina. Flores uses an AR33 or SR-25 as a primary weapon and a GSH-18 as a secondary weapon, and comes equipped with a new gadget know as the RCE-Ratero Charge. This small, remote-controlled device can be set down and driven across the map for a limited before it detonates in a powerful explosion.

Notably, Flores is the first operator to be made available as part of Rainbow Six Siege's battle pass, and those that purchase the Premium tier will gain immediate access to the character. Other players will be able to unlock Flores with Renown or R6 Credits starting 30th March.

Rainbow Six Siege - Operation Crimson Heist.Watch on YouTube

Crimson Heist's other features are free and available to all players from today. These include a "reimagined" version of Rainbow Six Siege's Middle-East-themed Border map intended to "improve gameplay and quality of life". This spruces up the 2016 original with a new interior balcony connecting the east staircase to the break room, an extended bathroom area, and various other changes, including fewer destructible walls and an outside staircase.

Elsewhere, Crimson Heist introduces the GONNE-6 secondary weapon - which shoots an explosive projectile that detonates on impact with surfaces and destroys bulletproof gadgets - as well as a beta version of Rainbow Six Siege's Match Replay system, plus a variety of other tweaks and changes. You'll find full details over on Ubisoft's Crimson Heist launch page.

And for those still not onboard the Rainbow Six Siege train after six years of release, Ubisoft is having another free play week, which starts this Thursday, 18th March, on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Things come to a close a week later on 25th March, and there'll be discounts of up to 70 percent on the game for the duration of the event.

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