As Rainbow Six Siege X numbers continue to slide, Ubisoft promises to crack down on cheaters and 'prioritize a fun experience' with future balance changes

Four months after tacking an X onto the team-based shooter Rainbow Six Siege and converting it to a free-to-play model, Ubisoft has laid out its priorities for the future of the game, admitting that it hasn't "communicated clearly enough about what [it's] been working on" since the transition.

Rainbow Six Siege saw a big boost in player numbers earlier this year when the X update went live, from more than 66,000 concurrents on Steam on June 9, according to SteamDB, to more than 142,000 on June 10.

But it's been a downhill ride ever since, and concurrent player counts now are actually lower than they were immediately prior to the free-to-play shift. User reviews have also taken a turn downward: The overall rating on Steam remains "very positive" but recent reviews are "mixed," with an uptick in cheaters seemingly the most common complaint.

Improving Rainbow Six Siege X's anti-cheat is the first priority for the dev team: Game director Joshua Mills and creative director Alex Karpazis wrote in today's update that "our systems in Siege X did not keep pace with the surge of cheaters that followed the move to Free Access, though we have made some progress."

The update doesn't go into detail about Ubisoft's plans for better anti-cheat for fear of "tipping off cheat makers to our next move," but Mills and Karpazis said plans include targeting "high profile cheat makers" and users of "a single notorious cheat product," as well as disrupting exploits in the Siege X marketplace and handing out permabans to people caught using them.

I don't know which cheat is the "most notorious" in the Siege X community, but aggressive legal action against cheat makers has proven successful in recent years. Bungie, for instance, recently scored a $4.4 million win against cheat maker Aimjunkies, whose website has since been taken offline, and Activision last year hammered EngineOwning for more than $14.5 million. Now that it has a big-time free-to-play shooter of its own, and an attendant horde of cheaters, Ubisoft may have decided that it's time to start playing hardball too.

Also on the priority list are a change in how the team approaches balancing to "prioritize a fun experience," which very generally means more buffs and fewer nerfs, and major changes to Ranked play. Ubisoft is also looking at making changes to Siege X seasons "to bring more substance to mid-season updates."

Mills and Karpazis said today's update isn't "exhaustive" but committed to sharing more, and asked Siege X players to continue submitting feedback about the game. "Your passion and commitment keep Siege growing," they wrote. "Your priorities are our priorities, and together we'll keep building Siege into the best it can be."