Rainbow Six Siege will be rolling out a year’s worth of free DLC. Yes, a year of free maps, new operators and new game modes. It certainly made Ubisoft look like good guys with their free DLC plans, and I was happy to see that they weren’t segmenting their community. You know, until they announced the season pass.

What do you give the gamers who have everything? Well, if you’re already giving away maps, modes and operators for free, there must be something that you can make them pay for. Of course there is! Here is the video showing off just what you can get from the Season Pass for $30 (R428.41 with today’s exchange rate).

So, for half the price of a new AAA game, or the price of many games depending on the sales you buy through, you can get some aesthetic upgrades, early access to new operators and faster progression. I’m the most concerned about that last point. I don’t mind people paying for aesthetic stuff in games – while it’s not something that I care about, I know it’s something that other people enjoy and it’s nice for some people to show off that they spent money. But faster progression?

Rainbow Six Siege doesn’t have any single player gameplay, so all progression is built by playing well with (and against) others. Unlocking new content and earning more renown in-game is part of the experience – this isn’t like single-player games where if people want to spend money for the best gear early on it doesn’t affect other players.

Does this mean that people who buy the Season Pass will automatically have a better, um, shot at doing well at the game? Sure, you could just not pay and play your way through to get all the renown and unlock all the things, but when you’re playing against other people who have paid to unlock those things and are, therefore, more over powered, doesn’t that change the balance of the game? If this isn’t a pay to win season pass, I’m not quite sure what is.

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