Rainbow Six Siege to launch new ban system to combat racial and homophobic slurs

Ubisoft will beef up its ban system in Rainbow Six Siege next week, targeting players using racial and homophobic slurs or hate speech in-game, it has announced. The company will ban players for either two, seven, or 15 days depending on severity, and will permaban the worst offenders, it said in a Reddit post.

It will look at each incident on a "case-by-case" basis, and it sounds like the new system will be able to identify hate speech automatically: when asked whether this was the case, a Ubisoft representative said the system will not be "reliant on user reports".

Those reports will, however, often "lead to a faster resolution", and Ubisoft said it will be "helpful" if players send in any evidence of toxic behaviour that they've seen in the past. So, retroactive bans are possible. Players will be able to appeal bans, as they would normally.

The company's code of conduct forbids “any language or content deemed illegal, dangerous, threatening, abusive, obscene, vulgar, defamatory, hateful, racist, sexist, ethically offensive or constituting harassment”. 

Ubisoft stressed that the system will not target simple trash talk. "We understand that it is a competitive game and there will be some degree of trash talking/'swear words' used. We are expecting people not to take it too far with slurs and hate speech. We're really focusing on slurs, homophobic language, and similarly offensive toxicity," it said. 

It all seems fair and reasonable, and I think it'd be great if we had more systems like this in other competitive online games.

Samuel Horti

Samuel Horti is a long-time freelance writer for PC Gamer based in the UK, who loves RPGs and making long lists of games he'll never have time to play. 

Latest in Action
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'
A shock trap transformed into a Lego brick in Monster Hunter Wilds.
A modder keeps turning Monster Hunter traps into Lego bricks so that the monsters will know true pain, and they've just done it again
Nova, a hero from Marvel Comics, smolders at the camera while surrounded by flames.
The team behind Shredder's Revenge has a Marvel beat 'em up on the way with a whopping 15 characters and unsurprisingly gorgeous pixel art
The First Berserker: Khazan tips - Khazan
10 The First Berserker: Khazan tips to smash your foes
Crysis hero Prophet running down a beach while under fire
Crysis Remastered Trilogy activates maximum value mode as upgraded version of the legendary, hardware-crushing FPS series is currently 60% off
Phantom Blade Zero
Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero didn't click for me until I realized its deep commitment to wuxia film authenticity meant I had to relearn how swords work
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'