Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege received game approval from China’s National Press and Publication Administration on Friday, alongside 15 other games. It should be noted that the Chinese largest game publisher Tencent is the distributor of the game and the game approval includes both mobile and PC platforms. It’s more likely Tencent will also take a major role in the esports operation for Rainbow Six Siege in China.
In addition, the approval also marks the Rainbow Six streams as legit on Chinese live-streaming platforms Douyu, Huya, and Bilibili. Tencent also holds major shares in these platforms.
Rainbow Six Siege was published in 2015, but it took nine years to finally get approval from Chinese authorities. Based in France, Ubisoft is one of a few foreign game publishers with offices in Mainland China—it opened its China office in Chengdu in 2007.
2024 also marks the 60th anniversary of China-France diplomatic ties and this approval by Chinese authorities also reflects the ongoing positive relationship between China and France (side note: Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed character was recently featured at the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening ceremony).
In addition, another high-profile game Marvel Rivals also received game approval from the Chinese authority. The game is a 6v6 hero shooter developed by China’s second-largest game publisher, NetEase, in collaboration with Marvel Games, Marvel properties, and the video game division of Disney Interactive (which owns the Marvel brand).