(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Rainbow Six Extraction isn’t out yet, but Ubisoft is already issuing a major discount. Previously planned to be a $60 game, Extraction will launch on every platform at $40. Ubisoft also announced that every copy of Extraction will come with two “Buddy Pass tokens” that’ll allow friends to download a trial version of the game valid for 14 days.

Those who preordered Extraction at its old $60 price will be refunded the difference.

It’s pretty rare for a big game to get a price decrease in the final months before its release. Since its announcement in 2019, Ubi has maintained that Rainbow Six Extraction is a fully-fledged standalone game from the PvP-focused Rainbow Six Siege, and priced it as such. To my eye, the new $40 tag reflects a perception of Extraction as a smaller spinoff.

That was my impression of Extraction when I played it in June. For as novel as a co-op game with Siege’s unique destruction and precise gunplay is, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was playing a well-made expansion.

The move could also have to do with the positive buzz around Back 4 Blood (88%), a co-op zombie FPS from the creators of Left 4 Dead that I loved for its fast-paced missions and unique progression. I’d admittedly stopped thinking about Extraction since getting my zombie fix in B4B, but now that the asking price is in-line with my expectations, I’m more excited than ever to give it a proper shot.

A slower-paced zombie romp with Siege operators in a month that’s usually bone dry for game releases? I’ll take it. Ubi may also be glad to be avoiding the flood of huge 2022 games kicking off in February: It also announced today Extraction will release on January 20, 2022, which comes following a July announcement that Extraction had been delayed out of 2021 to sometime in January 2022.

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn’t pay him. He’s very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he’ll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don’t, though.