Rainbow Six Siege will welcome a modern operator next month – Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid franchise – complete with a nod to the series’ iconic cardboard box. However, the tactical shooter almost included the box as a usable in-game element, a feature that ultimately didn’t make the cut.
Josh Mills, Creative Director for Rainbow Six Siege, confirmed in an interview with IGN that the idea was considered internally, but quickly dismissed. The reasoning, he explained, centered around players’ deep familiarity with the game’s maps. This collaboration highlights the growing trend of cross-property integrations within the gaming industry.
Whereas hiding in a cardboard box might perform against non-player characters, the development team determined that Siege players, intimately aware of map layouts, wouldn’t be fooled by a randomly placed box. “Our players know every inch of every map and we have a saying on the team, ‘Operators’ eyes don’t lie,’” Mills told IGN.
“So, if a box suddenly appears in a corner of a room on any given map, our players will immediately shoot that box.”
The decision, while logical, means fans won’t be able to deploy cardboard cover in Rainbow Six Siege anytime soon.
Ubisoft first teased the Rainbow Six Siege and Metal Gear Solid crossover last month, revealing a scene featuring Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell receiving a call via Codec. The full details surrounding Snake’s inclusion – and the role players will assume – are available in the trailer linked here. David Hayter also reprises his voice role for the character.
Snake will officially arrive in Siege on March 3 as part of Season 1: Silent Shadow, alongside Gray Fox skins for Viper and a Meryl skin for Azami.
“We are thrilled to bring the world of the Metal Gear Solid series into Rainbow Six Siege with the first season’s new revisioned event, a limited-time 4v4 stealth mode where Snake and Zero lead an elite team of Operators to recover stolen data,” Mills said. “The team has further introduced ‘Last Mission,’ a new dual-line mission designed to pay homage to long-time Metal Gear Solid fans.”
Metal Gear Solid represents one of the most ambitious crossovers to date for Rainbow Six Siege, but it’s not the first. Recent collaborations have also brought cosmetics from the universes of Attack on Titan and The Boys to the game for existing players. Sam Fisher initially debuted in 2015, but was later reintroduced as a playable operator in 2020.
Tom Phillips is a news editor at IGN.
