There's no pretending GTA 6 is just another release.
Rockstar's upcoming game arrives on November 19, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions confirmed. Its enormous cultural footprint means its launch isn't simply a concern for direct competitors, it could affect the amount of time players spend with almost every major game.
Mills acknowledged exactly that in a recent interview.
His expectation is straightforward: Siege will lose players temporarily when GTA 6 launches.
Rather than treating that decline as a disaster, the team is being encouraged to set realistic expectations.
That's an important distinction for a live-service game.
Player numbers naturally fluctuate. A major release can create a dramatic short-term shift without permanently destroying the audience that existed beforehand.
Mills said the bigger danger is allowing that temporary decline to create anxiety inside the development team.
The "Kings and Queens" Strategy💪
This is where Ubisoft's approach gets interesting.
Mills described Siege's "golden rule" as serving the players who remain "like kings and queens."
The idea is simple: if someone chooses Siege instead of disappearing into Leonida, Ubisoft wants that player to feel that their time is being valued.
That doesn't necessarily mean Ubisoft has announced a giant giveaway campaign.
The exact loyalty rewards haven't been fully revealed.
What has been confirmed is that Ubisoft plans to keep pushing content during the GTA 6 launch period rather than backing away.
Mills specifically pointed to Year 11 Season 4, which is planned around the same general window, along with "unannounced surprises" that the team is holding back to make an impact.
So the strategy appears to have two parts:
Accept that some players will leave for GTA 6.
Give the players who remain fresh reasons to keep logging in.
That's less about defeating GTA 6 and more about protecting Siege's core community while the gaming spotlight moves elsewhere.
Siege Isn't Actually Going on Vacation🤐
There's another revealing part of Mills' comments.
Ubisoft doesn't intend to reduce activity simply because GTA 6 is dominating the conversation.
Instead, Mills said the team will double down on players who continue spending their time with Siege.
That philosophy already fits the way Siege operates as a long-running live-service game.
Ubisoft's current Year 11 roadmap includes seasonal content, new operators, gameplay updates, events, balancing changes and other ongoing additions.
The GTA 6 window therefore isn't being treated as an excuse to slow down.
If anything, Ubisoft appears to be viewing it as a reason to make Siege's next major content beat more important.
And that could make those currently undisclosed Season 4 surprises particularly interesting.
Why the Timing Matters?👀
The most fascinating part of this situation isn't that Ubisoft expects competition.
Everyone expects competition.
It's that Siege is choosing to openly acknowledge the problem rather than pretend GTA 6 won't matter.
Live-service games depend on habits.
Players don't necessarily need to abandon a game forever to affect its numbers. A player spending several weeks exploring Vice City instead of playing ranked Siege is already a meaningful shift in engagement.
That's why retention during the launch window matters even if Ubisoft expects players to return later.
The company isn't trying to convince everyone to ignore GTA 6.
Mills essentially acknowledges that even the Siege team plans to play it.
The more realistic objective is to make sure that when players open their game library during those hectic launch weeks, Siege still gives them a reason to click Play.
What Happens Next?🤔
The big question is what "royal treatment" actually means.
At the moment, Ubisoft hasn't provided a detailed list of GTA 6-era loyalty rewards. The confirmed pieces are the broader commitment to reward players who stay, the arrival of Season 4 around the period, and previously unannounced surprises being held back for the occasion.
That leaves plenty of room for speculation but it's worth separating speculation from what Ubisoft has actually confirmed.
Players should watch for:
Year 11 Season 4 details
The promised unannounced surprises
Specific loyalty rewards or incentives
How Ubisoft responds if Siege's player numbers fall sharply
Whether other live-service games adopt similar strategies around GTA 6
There's also a bigger industry question here.
If GTA 6 temporarily pulls huge amounts of attention away from established multiplayer games, developers may increasingly decide that retention events are more useful than trying to compete head-on with Rockstar's launch.
Siege could become an interesting test case.
🎮 The Bottom Line
Ubisoft isn't pretending GTA 6 won't hurt Rainbow Six Siege.
Its own creative director expects the game to take a hit when Rockstar's blockbuster arrives—and even acknowledges that plenty of Siege players, developers included, will want to experience GTA 6.
The difference is what Ubisoft plans to do afterward.
Rather than retreat, the Siege team says it will keep producing content and reward the players who choose to stick around. Season 4 is arriving around the same period, with additional surprises still under wraps.
The exact rewards remain a mystery.
But Ubisoft has already made its message clear: if you're still playing Siege while everyone else is roaming Leonida, expect the developers to notice.
Now the question is: what would actually convince you to keep playing Siege during the GTA 6 launch window? Let us know in the comments.
