Some previously limited-time skins are returning to Rainbow Six Siege – and the community has had a mixed reaction to the news.
Ubisoft announced today via the official Rainbow Six Twitter page that Outbreak Packs will be returning to the game this week (July 6th to July 13th 2021).
Outbreak was a limited-time co-op game mode that launched back in early 2018, as part of the Operation Chimera expansion, and saw players clear through waves of enemies infected by an alien parasite.
However, it appears that this time around it’s just the skins that are returning – not the game mode – and that has frustrated some sections of the Rainbow Six Siege playerbase.
As usual, players can use two methods to unlock skins. They can use in-game currency Renown (which is earnt by playing the game) and Credits (which can be bought using real money).
The packs cost 12,500 renown or 300 credits per pack. To get all the content, users would have to buy 50 packs, which costs over £100.
Here are some members of the Siege community – including those in the esports scene – and what they had to say about the Outbreak skins coming back in this way:
You really just gonna drop a week long FOMO lootboxes for up to $100 and not even an event to go with it?
— BikiniBodhi ???? FNATIC (@BikiniBodhi) July 6, 2021
Disappointed. Do better.
YES THESE ARE THE BEST COSMETICS BY FAR THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
— Snedger ???? FNATIC (@Snedgie) July 6, 2021
AjitoThe13th added on Reddit: “1. Good idea. To hell with skin exclusivity, every player should get a chance to look cool af the way they want.
2. Bad execution. Three-year-old skins shouldn’t cost $100+ for basically copy pasted paintjobs on guns and characters. That’s what I call a punch in the gut of every player. Do better, Ubisoft. You did far better in the past, nothing prevents you to go back to those days.”
Related article: Rainbow Six community reacts to first openly gay operator Flores: ‘Representation matters’
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.