Ubisoft believes the newest entry in the Rainbow Six series has the potential to become the best-selling shooter in the company’s history, even surpassing Far Cry 4.
During a conference call with investors today, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot made it clear the company has high hopes for the game. “Over its lifetime, we believe Rainbow Six: Siege has the potential to become the highest-selling shooter in Ubisoft’s history,” he stated.
Later in the call, Ubisoft was asked about its ambitions with the game. CFO Alain Martinez responded by pointing out that Rainbow Six games traditionally sell about three million units, “versus Far Cry [4] that this year has exceeded seven million.” Despite this, Martinez said, “We believe that Rainbow Six–because of replayability and multiplayer–might have a potential to [do] better than Far Cry over its lifetime.”
Guillemot chimed in to reinforce that Ubisoft isn’t expecting this to happen during the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2016), but over its lifetime. “It’s very important to consider that this game will continue to live for a long time as we will introduce new content on a regular basis because it will be a multiplayer game,” he said.
Guillemot believes Siege’s replayability “will be key to the game’s success.” He did not address the fact that Siege is available only on current-gen consoles and PC, whereas Far Cry 4 was also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
While another Tom Clancy game, The Division, was delayed until 2016 today, Ubisoft reaffirmed a 2015 launch for Siege. A specific release date was not announced, but the company said it expects the game out sometime between October and the end of the year.