Ubisoft delays Rainbow Six Extraction and Riders Republic

Fall 2021 will now be a little less crowded as Ubisoft pushes back the release dates for two of its biggest games on the horizon. Rainbow Six Extraction, the co-op zombie spinoff of Rainbow Six Siege, has been delayed four months and will now release in January 2022. Riders Republic's delay is less severe, pushed from its original September 2 date to October 28.

While Ubi describes Riders Republic's two month delay as an opportunity to "fine tune" the game before it releases, Ubi could make bigger changes to Extraction with four extra months of development time.

"Our ambition with Rainbow Six Extraction is to deliver a full-fledged AAA experience that changes the way you play and think about cooperative games," an Ubi blog post published today reads. "We are embracing the opportunity to take additional time to bring this vision to life in the way it deserves in January 2022. We are confident this will ensure Rainbow Six Extraction is the immersive, cooperative, and thrilling experience we set out to create, and the one you aspire to play."

Ubi didn't specify any reasons for the delay, but Extraction's push could have to do with its mixed reception when YouTubers and press recently went hands-on with the game. I enjoyed my few hours with Extraction, but its slow pace lacked the thrills I'm looking for in a co-op zombie shooter.

At this point, I'm way more excited about Riders Republic. I never got into Steep (because I'm just not that into snowboarding), but the way Riders gathers so many extreme sports under one roof (bikes, snowboarding, skiing, jetpacks, parachutes, wingsuits!) with huge multiplayer challenges sounds incredible in concept.

I'm glad I won't have to wait too long to race 60 other randos down a dirt hill on a bike, but Extraction has joined the increasingly huge pile of games coming in 2022.