SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATE, 4 DECEMBER:
Because my holiday starts next week and I’m desperately trying to finish up work in time, everything is going wrong. I got an email from a local Ubisoft PR rep on Tuesday, including info that the publisher would “be announcing and taking live the test servers for Rainbow Six Siege (consoles) this week” which discerning readers will recognise from the headline up top, but it turns out I’ve been bamboozled. Prompted by Devon Petermann’s comment below, I requested more info about this from Ubisoft HQ, and can unconfirm the previous info and confirm this new info instead:
- The local test servers on PC are now closed, and Ubisoft is “currently analysing the results”, with the intention of establishing “permanent servers in South Africa soon”.
- In the meantime, Rainbow Six Siege players on PC and console will connect to existing game servers in the EU.
- I need a holiday.
My apologies for the mix-up.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Ubisoft has confirmed that the game’s local servers for Xbox One and PS4 will be online sometime over the next several days, so console gamers can join their PC co-operators in the sub-200 ping club.
Test servers on PC have been available since the 11 November pre-launch of Rainbow Six Siege’s Operation Shifting Tides season update, via a separate game client in Uplay and Steam. Although the game’s test server access and datacentre selection are disabled on console, I assume that its netcode prioritises ping for matchmaking purposes, so the new hosting is probably automatic. Unless it isn’t? I dunno!
Operation Shifting Tides also has its public launch today, from 16:00 CAT on PC, 17:00 on PS4, and 18:00 on Xbox One.