Ubisoft faced some backlash over a previous venue announcement for a Rainbow Six Siege tournament and they have now decided to move it elsewhere.
Rainbow Six Siege , like pretty much any other Ubisoft game, puts a lot of emphasis on inclusion and representation. This means the game often features LGBTQ+ characters, which is the reason why the community found itself confused over Ubisoft's decision to hold a Six Major in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
United Arab Emirates are one of the countries where such personal choices and ways of life are frowned upon to say the least, which is why Rainbow Six Siege community reacted so sharply to Ubisoft's announcement. A portion of the community even started a petition to prevent the event from being held in UAE.
It appears that all of the backlash bore fruit as Ubisoft announced the event in UAE would be cancelled . Technically, the tournament itself is not cancelled, it will just be moved to another city but the company hasn't announced the new location yet.
One interesting takeaway from the announcement is that Ubisoft claims the initial intent was a result of extensive talks with the local teams, UAE government and their partners in the country - all of whom were apparently fine with diversity, inclusion and acceptance.
Without more details, it is up for speculation whether this only meant the game's views would be respected or all of the potential members of the audience would be welcome, regardless of their religion, gender or sexual orientation.
Ubisoft
Either way, it seems like Ubisoft intends to support the MENA region in other ways and cultivate the growing community there.
