Rainbow Six Extraction release date and gameplay revealed

The Rainbow Six Extraction release date has been confirmed, and you won't have to wait too much longer to head into action with the co-op spinoff to Rainbow Six Siege.

Ubisoft confirmed during its E3 2021 Ubisoft Forward presentation that Rainbow Six Extraction will finally launch on September 16 after a series of delays. Extraction is the new, not-so-pandemic-y name for Rainbow Six Quarantine, and the game itself is a full-fledged expansion on some of the concepts introduced in Rainbow Six Siege's limited-time Outbreak mode.

Ubisoft showed off a cinematic trailer for the game that showed a bunch of familiar operators from Siege in a new alien-slaying context, and it also debuted a first-look at one of the game's tense co-op missions - including several of its new alien archetypes.  Here's a look at that seven-minute gameplay snippet as well.

We also got our first look at the roster of operators coming to Rainbow Six Extraction; Finka, Pulse, Doc, Sledge, Alibi, Vigil, Hibana, Ela, and Lion have all been confirmed so far, and Ubisoft is teasing a lineup of 18 Operators in total for the full game. You'll have a leg up with each operator if you're familiar with their overall playstyle from Rainbow Six Siege, but you'll also have plenty to learn as each one comes with their own customizable loadout and skills suited specifically for blasting aliens - breaching walls to rescue hostages from their human captors does call for a slightly different approach than fighting an alien menace.

While Rainbow Six Extraction is being built foremost as PvE co-op experience ,you will also be able to play solo if you prefer to face down oblivion on your own. Either way, you'll have to be careful or risk your favorite operators being captured and going MIA, temporarily restricting you from playing as them until you can mount a successful rescue mission into the containment zone - and you might want to bring some friends along for that one.

Rainbow Six: Extraction is due to release on 16 September on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One. 

Make sure you don't miss any announcements from the show with the help of our handy E3 2021 schedule, and grab the perfect new system to play on with our guide to Prime Day PS5 deals.