Rainbow Six Tactics will put players in command of up to 4 Operators for a turn-based single-player campaign built around careful planning, coordinated breaches, and dangerous assignments across the globe. The game was revealed during gamescom’s Opening Night Live, where Ubisoft also showed its first gameplay trailer. Ubisoft Paris, the studio that co-developed Mario + Rabbids, is developing the project. Ubisoft describes it as the first new single-player entry in the Rainbow Six series in 18 years.
Players will take the role of Six, commander of the Rainbow unit, while Paul Bishop, the protagonist of the Vegas games, leads the Rainbow Six organization in the story. The campaign follows Rainbow after the events of Siege Year 10 as the unit rebuilds, with cutscenes between missions connecting its new operations to the wider storyline. Missions will be selected, squads assembled, and objectives completed through a turn-based system that trades split-second firefights for deliberate decisions.
Creative Director Elie Benhamou described the design in the Xbox Wire announcement: “Rainbow Six games all share a common tactical core: intel, planning, high-stakes decision-making, and elite Operators with distinct roles.”
Build the squad before each operation
Preparation continues between missions. From headquarters, players will manage resources, develop facilities, train their Operators, review intelligence gathered during previous assignments, and upgrade the base to unlock new skills and equipment. Clues collected across operations will tie that campaign progression to a global conspiracy. With its developing headquarters and turn-based missions, the structure points toward tactical strategy games such as XCOM rather than the multiplayer-focused entries that have defined Rainbow Six in recent years. Ubisoft is also presenting Tactics as a straightforward premium game, with no in-game store and no live-service structure.
The roster includes 15 recruitable Operators from Rainbow Six Siege, each with different abilities, specialized gadgets, and skill trees. Ash, Sledge, Nokk, Montagne, Glaz, Doc, and Smoke were among the Operators shown during a press briefing. The campaign will offer dozens of possible missions in locations around the world, using hand-crafted maps instead of procedurally generated battlefields. Enemy and objective locations can still be randomized, so the same map will not necessarily play out the same way every time. Objectives range from hostage rescue and bomb disposal to target elimination, making squad selection its own tactical puzzle.
Recon will reveal rooms one drone at a time
Each operation begins with a real-time recon phase. Outdoor areas will not use fog of war because aerial support can provide the team with intelligence. Buildings work differently: their interiors remain hidden until small recon drones move through them, revealing enemy positions and weapons before the squad commits to a plan.
Once the assault begins, players can choose where Operators will enter, place breaching charges, and launch a coordinated infiltration. Commands can be queued before the action unfolds. A feature called The Breach lets all active Operators move simultaneously during a coordinated assault into a new area, combining their abilities with environmental destruction in one concentrated push.
After the team is inside, combat shifts into turn-based play built around cover, overwatch, and sightlines. The slower format leaves room to decide which wall gets opened, which angle needs to be watched, and how the squad should move before the enemy gets a chance to respond.
Destructible walls return with The Breach
Destruction remains a major part of the formula. Fully destructible environments let Operators break through walls to create new lines of sight, remove enemy cover, or open fresh entry points when the original plan starts falling apart.
Operators will retain their individual identities instead of becoming interchangeable pieces on a grid. A demonstration showed Glaz taking a long-range sniper shot that hit two enemies lined up across the map, while Nokk’s ability appeared to help her move between sightlines. Their familiar gear and abilities should let players build squads around complementary strengths, bringing the tension and team-focused decision-making of Siege into a slower format.
Game director Martial Potron told GamesRadar+ that the turn-based format is meant to let players experience Rainbow Six’s tactical identity differently. The design draws on the planning phases of earlier games and Siege‘s focus on tactics, while Ubisoft Paris is also aiming to connect the older Vegas audience with players who know the series through Siege.
Rainbow Six Tactics is scheduled for 2027 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, although Ubisoft has not announced an exact release date. It will also be the first Rainbow Six title released for consoles since Rainbow Six Extraction launched in 2022. The game is being designed as a new single-player chapter for the franchise, with global missions, team development, reconnaissance, and destructible battlefields at its center.
Would you build your squad around familiar Siege Operators? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram for more gaming coverage.
