Ubisoft hikes Rainbow Six Siege prices for Year 3

Ubisoft has announced that it is dropping the Standard Edition of its multiplayer shooter Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege in favour of releasing an Advanced Edition which becomes the base version of the game, and in doing so hiking prices across the board.

In an announcement on the official blog, Ubisoft confirmed that the Standard Edition of Rainbow Six Siege is being discontinued from February 13th 2018 - though, naturally, will still be playable for anyone who has a copy of the game beyond that point. The reason for the shift: its replacement, the Advanced Edition, which 'comes with all of the content that the Standard Edition had – access to all Rainbow Six Siege content: modes, maps, weapon options, level progression and the standard amount of time required to unlock the original 20 Operators' as well as 600 units of in-game currency and 10 Outbreak Collection Packs, both additions not available in the original Standard Edition.

As well as the new Advanced Edition, the publisher has confirmed the retirement of the existing Gold Edition in favour of a version which comes with the contents of the Advanced Edition and a 'Year 3' season pass for upcoming downloadable content. For those who want the full experience, there's the Complete Edition, which includes the contents of the Advanced Edition as well as all downloadable content from Year 1, Year 2, and the Year 3 pass for upcoming DLC.

The retirement of the Standard Edition, though, means that the barrier to entry has been raised: According to US pricing obtained by PC Gamer but not included in the original announcement the $40 Standard Edition is replaced by the $60 Advanced Edition, the $70 Year 2 Gold Edition is replaced by the $90 Year 3 Gold Edition, and the Complete Edition goes from $90 to $130 in exchange for the added Year 3 content.

For those who find the pricing a little steep, Ubisoft has an answer in the form of the $15 Starter Edition - a version of the game which comes with the same content as the Advanced Edition bar the Outbreak Collection packs but which modifies the game so that unlocking the 20 in-game characters takes an increased amount of Renown - the title's other in-game currency - and thus a significantly longer play time.

The new editions will be available on February 13th, the company has confirmed.