Get ready to breach and clear: Master Chief is coming to Rainbow Six Siege in the first crossover between Ubisoft’s tactical shooter and the legendary Halo series.
You can purchase and equip the Master Chief elite skin for the operator Sledge today, Sept. 26. The kit comes with a full set of Spartan armor for Sledge as well as a skin for his breaching hammer that looks like a Banished gravity hammer.
While this is the two franchises’ first time combining forces, it’s far from the first time each has integrated themselves with another IP. Rainbow Six Siege has skins from Rick and Morty, the WWE, Netflix’s Bank Heist, and multiple Ubisoft properties, whereas the Master Chief is also present in Fortnite and Brawlhalla.
Both R6 and Halo: Infinite, which suffered from attrition on Steam charts and in the viewership of their esports scenes, have seen resurgences in key areas. Siege’s player count continues to rise across 2023, and Infinite seems to have stabilized after rocky patches, exacerbated by a lack of Forge customization.
It’s not a stretch to say this skin could rake in the cash for both Ubisoft and 343. Sledge is one of the game’s most popular operators and has been consistently in the meta for multiple years. A crossover with an IP like Halo is sure to snag the eyes of even the most casual viewers.
As always, skins provide a way for developers to monetize games after launch. But with the longevity of both games, it seems like a big splash was needed to juice in-game purchases.