Ubisoft has to get increasingly creative from here when it comes to Rainbow Six Siege operators, as the roster is getting thick, and year 4 roadmap still has a stop to make – and presumably further trips will follow. Players have wondered over the years whether we’d get a new operator with a furry companion, but there are some specific considerations holding back a possible K9 unit.

“This is something that we’ve talked about for a while,” presentation director Alexander Karpazis says in a Wired video answering fan questions via Twitter. “Our creative director always talks about a K9 unit. But to answer your question, I have to ask you a question. Are you okay with shooting a dog?”

Well… are you? Plenty of other modern military games have done K9 units in the past – Nomad among the Black Ops 4 specialists is perhaps the most notable recent example, and Riley from Call of Duty: Ghosts (in the image above) played an even more prominent role. Perhaps the bigger issue is that a K9 unit would introduce a separate, AI-controlled character into matches – something that might turn Siege too far on its head.

Unless you just play as the dog directly. That’d probably be fine, right?

Karpazis also broached the possibility of a dual pistol operator and more elite skin options. In short, they’re all very possible.