Rainbow Six Extraction and Riders Republic, two of Ubisoft’s major upcoming games, have been delayed. This is the second time both games have been delayed, as Rainbow Six Extraction (then titled Quarantine) was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, and Riders Republic was originally slated for February 2021.
The Rainbow Six Extraction Twitter account shared a statement this afternoon saying that the game has been delayed to January 2022, moved back from its September 16 date. Riders Republic wasn’t pushed back quite as far, with a Ubisoft blog post from the development team stating that the game has been delayed to October 28 from an original release date of September 2.
Update:
We are delaying the release of Rainbow Six Extraction until January 2022.
We will use this time to ensure that we bring this immersive, cooperative, and thrilling experience to life as we prepare to bring you a truly unique Rainbow Six game.
— Rainbow Six Extraction (@R6Extraction) July 16, 2021
Rainbow Six Extraction and Riders Republic were both large parts of Ubisoft’s E3 presentation and were intended to be big fall releases for the publisher. It’s unclear why both games were delayed so close to one another.
The Rainbow Six Extraction statement says that the development team “will use this time to ensure that we bring this immersive, cooperative, and thrilling experience to life”, while the Riders Republic blog post says that the team is taking “more time to fine tune the experience and give you another chance to jump in before launch.” It’s not clear whether any upcoming Riders Republic betas will also be affected.
Riders Republic and Rainbow Six Extraction are not the only recent games to be delayed. Resident Evil Re:Verse, an upcoming multiplayer mode for players of Resident Evil Village, was recently delayed until 2022. Numerous games have faced delays over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with studios citing pandemic stress and other issues behind the delays.
Both of Ubisoft’s statements included a promise to share more information “soon,” but it remains to be seen whether fans will see any appreciable news before the games’ new release dates.