Steam quietly makes massive FPS free for you to download and play

A much-beloved first-person shooter is back with a brand new coat of paint, and it’s now free to play over on Steam… although the fans don’t seem too happy about it.

Ubisoft’s 2015 shooter Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege just got a brand new update on all platforms, and it’s even rebranded as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X to celebrate.

Plus, now it’s free… well, some of it is free. The new “Free Access” version of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X gives you access to the Quick Match, Unranked, and Dual Front game modes, alongside a “selection” of some of the game’s operators.

Well, I guess that makes sense. They’re not just gonna give away the whole thing for free, and I’m sure everyone is happy to get something they don’t have to pay for, right?

Eh, according to the recent Steam reviews, no, because the game is now sitting at “Mixed” review score (down from its overall “Very Positive” score).

However, it seems that a lot of these reviews are either referencing server issues at launch (which have since been fixed) or are downright disingenuous (there are a lot of people complaining about a game they “paid” for now being “free”).

More importantly, however, what does the pre-existing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege community think of all this? Based on comments and threads over on the r/Rainbow6 subreddit, they’re alright with it.

As the “Free Access” version of the game doesn’t actually let players access the ranked mode in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, the community seems to view the whole thing as a net positive.

They get to continue enjoying the game they love without being matched with newbies, and the player count in ranked should rise as new players decide to buy the full version once they decide they like it enough.

Sounds like a rare example of Ubisoft doing something right, for once.