Rainbow Six Siege's Year 8 Season 1 is coming - here's what's new

Rainbow Six Siege's Year 8 Season 1 - called Operation Commanding Force - will include a new map, Operator, an "immersive reload update", and an attempt to "address players using mouse and keyboard on consoles".

Ubisoft also revealed further "anti-toxicity measures" that it hopes will make its community feel safer, too, as well as new challenges to welcome new players, too.

But let's start with the new Operator, Brava. Described as "an invaluable new Attacker equipped with the Kludge Drone gadget", Brava's drone disrupts hostile surveillance and provides counter-tactics - "like repurposing the technology for her squad" - and she can gain an advantage in any environment by accessing electronic resources available to her. 

Brava is a three-speed, one-health Operator, and carries a PARA-308 or a CAMRS as a primary weapon and a USP40 or a Super Shorty as a secondary weapon.

As for how Ubisoft wants to address m&k players playing on consoles?

"Players who use mouse and keyboard on consoles will activate a penalty that adds lag to their inputs," the developer explains. "The goal of this penalty is to encourage fair gameplay by removing the unfair advantage that mouse and keyboard players have on consoles. While active, continued use of mouse and keyboard gradually increases the lag over several matches, making it harder to aim and shoot. Completing matches with a controller will gradually reduce the lag back to normal."

When the new season drops, we'll also get to see the Reputation Penalty in action, too. Whilst active, the penalty mutes "repeat offenders by default to prevent hateful and disruptive content in voice chat. 

Interestingly, mute players can still use voice chat, but will only be heard by players prepared to unmute them.

We'll also get the usual balancing and weapon tweaks, too, along with a new battle pass (and its premium sibling, of course). Newbies can also acclimatize to the Operators and their unique skill sets thanks to a new set of challenges designed to make onboarding a little easier for beginners. 

Rainbow Six Siege matches were briefly overrun by images of giant chickens and far-fouler things, forcing Ubisoft to put a temporary stop on the game's ban ticket whilst it worked on a permanent fix.

And did you know John Wick director Chad Stahelski is set to helm Rainbow Six, the follow-up to 2021's Without Remorse?

There's a lot to get excited about in gaming this year. Here are the upcoming games of 2023 we still can't wait to play