Years before the release of the massively successful Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft had been planning a different game in the Tom Clancy series called Rainbow 6: Patriots. The narrative-heavy shooter was unceremoniously scrapped and replaced with Siege, but a new mission in Ghost Recon Wildlands paid tribute to the canceled title.
A two-part crossover mission between the Ghosts and the Rainbow Six team was added in a recent Ghost Recon Wildlands update, focusing on their efforts to locate the Rainbow Six operator Caveira in the Caimanes province. During some downtime as the two squads travel to their destination, the leader of the Ghosts mentions “Operations Patriots,” an operation that “went south.”
“Tell your sources to mind their business. Patriots is very classified,” one of the Rainbow Six operators responds.
Rainbow 6: Patriots would have been a far different game than the multiplayer-focused Siege. A conceptual video posted back in 2011 introduced its enemy faction, known as the “True Patriots.” The radical left-wing terrorist organization took it upon themselves to commit acts of violence in order to influence Wall Street, and in the opening scene, they kidnap an executive and eventually detonate a bomb strapped to his chest. The Rainbow Six team discovers him before it explodes, but are forced to throw him from a bridge in order to protect those nearby.
The game was being directed by SOCOM developer David Sears, who was later removed from the project and went on to design the military tactical shooter H-Hour: World’s Elite. Sears now works at We Happy Few studio Compulsion Games.
This isn’t the first time Ghost Recon Wildlands has crossed over with another Clancy game. Just before E3, a special mission featuring Splinter Cell protagonist Sam Fisher was added, and original voice actor Michael Ironside returned after having been absent from Splinter Cell Blacklist. No new game has been announced, but Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot assured fans that the company hasn’t abandoned the series yet. With any luck, we’ll hear more news on another game at next year’s conference.
Both Ghost Recon Wildlands and Rainbow Six Siege are available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
