Rainbow Six Siege Tests Removal of All Chat, Will Add Option to Disable It Instead

Ubisoft briefly entertained the idea of disabling the All Chat feature in Rainbow Six Siege in [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Ubisoft briefly entertained the idea of disabling the All Chat feature in Rainbow Six Siege in efforts to reduce in-game toxicity, but it's now reversed that decision following feedback from players. The reasoning behind the removal of the feature was that Ubisoft saw many instances of abusive communications came from All Chat, though players were vocal about wanting the feature to stick around and suggested alternative options. One of those options is one that Ubisoft will now be working on after the company said that it'll be looking into implementing a toggle option for having All Chat on or off.

The plans to remove All Chat were first detailed through the patch notes for the test server which were shared on the Rainbow Six Siege subreddit. Ubisoft gave an explanation for the line that said "Removal of All Chat from all game modes" and said the removal was part of its continued efforts to cut down on toxicity.

"As part of our continuous efforts against in-game toxicity, we will be removing the cross-chat feature in live games," Ubisoft said. "Our data consistently shows that a very high percentage of Abusive Chat reports are from cross-chat. Our aim is to make games a more welcoming experience and return the focus of the in-game chat to strategic team-based communications."

For those unfamiliar with the feature Rainbow Six Siege or any other online multiplayer game, it's a chat method which allows one team to talk to the other. This type of communication does often lead to shooting jabs and snide remarks back and forth between teams, but as some players pointed out, it has its positive uses. Bantering with the other team if both sides are enjoying the match is an entirely different situation, and some players wanted to still have the option to congratulate their opponents on a good game when a match was done.

Ubisoft took that feedback into consideration and shared another update later in the day to say that it had reversed its All Chat removal decision. Instead, it'll work on adding an option that'll let players decide if they want to opt into All Chat or not which is a system other games have also adopted.

"In the TS update earlier today we tested a removal of the cross-chat text feature as part of our anti-toxicity efforts," Ubisoft said. "After discussing with the team, and based on feedback, we have decided to focus on implementing a on/off toggle option for cross-chat in a future update. This means: 1. Cross-chat has been re-enabled on the Test Server, 2. Cross-chat functions will stay as they are on live as well."

No timeframe for when this toggle options will be released was given, but players won't have to worry about their All Chat being taken away for the time being.

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