Rainbow Six Extraction will offer a "sizeable amount" of "completely free" post-launch content

A "sizeable amount" of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction's post-launch content will be "completely free" and includes limited-time events. 

According to Ubisoft, challenges coming to the shooter include limited-time "game-changing" Crisis Events that either introduce a new Operator to your roster or a new Protean enemy. The first event – call Spillover – tasks players to wipe out mass colonies of an evolved version of the Sprawl. Successful players will get "exclusive" REACT Tech, new cosmetics, and new lore as a reward.

There are also weekly assignments, too, modes that offer different modifiers to "put players' skills to the test" such as Veteran mode, which removes your HUD, limits ammo, and enables friendly fire, just to spice things up. 

Ubisoft says Maelstrom Protocol – a challenging endgame mode for skilled players – "will be available at launch" and offers "a thrilling weekly challenge mode with tiered ranks" for the "most skilled Rainbow Six players". 

"Players must navigate a series of nine subzones with increasing difficulty, tougher enemies, quickly depleting resources, and allotted time getting shorter at each stage," the developer explained. "At each checkpoint, squads must choose to either extract to bank their points or attempt to push to the end. Earning points will secure a place for challengers in up to five classes, from Bronze to Silver to Gold, Platinum and even Diamond Class, each rewarding players with special headgear and REACT Credits."

While assignments and Maelstrom Protocol are expected to be available from launch, Crisis Events won't be live until "soon after". 

ICYMI, each standard edition of Extraction will come with two Buddy Pass tokens, allowing them to invite their friends to play with them for two weeks at no extra cost. Any progress made by your buddy will transfer over should they go on to purchase the full game. Pre-orders are now live.

Ubisoft recently revealed new details of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction, stating it will have "deep gameplay systems, operator progression, and more". The action will take place across four US regions – although only New York and San Francisco have been confirmed right now – with each map promising to be "roughly three times the size of previous Rainbow Six Siege maps" and boasting their own dynamic modifiers to keep your missions feeling fresh. There's also a new leveling system, too. 

The release date for Rainbow Six Extraction – the next installment of the fan-favorite Tom Clancy shooter – is January 20, 2022. We found out via Ubisoft itself, but not in the usual way. An old news post – published way back in June – was quietly updated to state that the game is expected to release on January 20, 2022. Up until that point, all we knew for sure was that the game was coming in January.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction will be available from January 20, 2022, on PC through the Ubisoft store, PS5, PS4, Stadia, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, plus Amazon Luna. It will offer "full" cross-play, cross-save, and cross-progression.

There are plenty of big titles on our upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games lists that you can get stuck into.