Earlier this year, Ubisoft released the first major expansion for Rainbow Six Siege’s third content year, an expansion called Operation Chimera. Along with a co-op event called Outbreak, Operation Chimera also included a series of event-specific loot boxes called Alpha Packs that could only be acquired by paying real money. The Alpha Packs proved to be a very divisive feature within the Siege community, but according to Ubisoft, they were also a major success, and thus there is a good chance that they will return in the future.
Speaking during the same Operation Para Bellum preview event in which he hinted at the coming of a new breacher operator, Ubisoft’s director of marketing Alex Remy addressed the topic of Alpha Packs, saying that the experiment of introducing paid-only packs that offered dupe-protected cosmetic items “was a tremendous success.” According to Remy, Ubisoft will “absolutely” bring Alpha Packs back in the future, though the company is at least aware that a lot of player didn’t like not being able to earn the packs via gameplay.
While those who participated in Operation Chimera received a handful of Alpha Packs for free, acquiring the full 50-pack bundle required forking over some cash. Remy said he understood why the implementation of Alpha Packs would upset some players, but he also argued that the items offered through the packs were purely cosmetic and thus entirely optional. As for Operation Chimera as a whole, Remy did admit that he and Ubisoft weren’t entirely satisfied with how the event was executed. Specifically, Remy expressed disappointment over the fact that, once it was over, Operation Chimera left no lasting legacy on Rainbow Six Siege as a whole (other than the addition of two new anti-bioterrorism operators):
“We diverged a little bit from what the core of the game is. After Outbreak was wrapped up and finished, that whole season was a bit dry. Not as exciting as the other ones. No multiplayer map left, no legacy.”
Because of the somewhat dry nature of Operation Chimera, Remy said he’s particularly excited for next month’s Operation Para Bellum since he sees it as a sort of return to form. Operation Para Bellum will include, among other things, two new playable operators, a new Villa map, a Pick & Ban system for Siege’s Pro League, and more minor tweaks that should affect the game’s meta such as bulletproof cameras and buffs for existing operators.