Ubisoft announced over the weekend that it would begin to issue bans against players using “racial and homophobic slurs, or hate speech” in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. In a post on the game’s subreddit, the developers said that these new consequences, including permanent bans, will only be levied against users on PC. Players on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will continue to be subject to Sony and Microsoft’s own codes of conduct.
“We will be tracking the frequency at which language that violates the Code of Conduct is used by individual players,” Ubisoft said, referring to published guidelines that have been in place for some time, “and will apply the appropriate ban on a case-by-case basis.”
The developers behind Rainbow Six Siege have long had prohibitive language against specific kinds of behavior in-game, including a section listing “forbidden conduct.” In the Reddit post, Ubisoft highlighted the following passage: “Any language or content deemed illegal, dangerous, threatening, abusive, obscene, vulgar, defamatory, hateful, racist, sexist, ethically offensive or constituting harassment is forbidden.”
To begin a review, players can use the recently added automated reporting system. It’s available from the game end lobby and is primarily set up to report potential cheaters or those using exploits. A more in-depth report is also available, but requires players to log in to their online accounts and communicate directly with the Ubisoft support team. Once players jump through those hoops, their feedback could be used to levy bans from two to 15 days.
Depending on the severity of the issue being reported, Ubisoft said that bans can also be made permanent.
Rainbow Six Siege has achieved the impossible over the last six months: a second chance. It began life with a rocky launch in Dec. 2015. Polygon’s own review called out its frustrating unlock system and network connectivity issues. Through consistently evolving its gameplay and doubling down on quality-of-life improvements for its most dedicated players, Ubisoft has managed to more than double the average and peak number of PC players on Steam (according to SteamCharts). It’s now a popular alternative to games like CS:GO, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite.