This Week at Ubisoft: The Crew Motorfest Free Trial and Early Access Announced, Skull and Bones Begins Closed Beta

This week at Ubisoft, The Crew Motorfest team announced early access and a free trial; Skull and Bones kicked off its Closed Beta; Rainbow Six Siege revealed the new Operator and updates coming in Operation Heavy Mettle; Riders Republic began a series of dev diaries for its Skate add-on; and Ubisoft announced a cloud-streaming agreement with Activision Blizzard. Check it all out and more in this week's roundup of all Ubisoft news.

Play The Crew Motorfest 3 Days Early or Free for 5 Hours

At Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 22, The Crew Motorfest debuted a new trailer and announced it would offer a five-hour free trial from September 14-17, and that anyone who pre-orders premium editions of the game will be able to access it three days early on September 11. Those premium editions will also include The Crew Motorfest's Year 1 Pass, which will give players three cars at launch, two additional cars every month, and grant immediate access to new Playlists.

Rainbow Six Siege - Operation Heavy Mettle Operator and Gadget Guide

Operation Heavy Mettle is coming soon and will bring a new Operator, new game mode for the Permanent Arcade, and more to Rainbow Six Siege. Ram is an Attacker from South Korea, joining the Redhammer squad. Her gadget is the BU-GI Auto-Breacher, an armored drone equipped with spinning blades in front and explosive charges underneath, and it will destroy anything in its path, from Defender shields to the floor it rolls on. In Operation Heavy Mettle, players can also take on the new Weapon Roulette game mode, a team deathmatch in which all players start with the same random weapon, and will periodically switch to a new random weapon.

Skull and Bones - 8 Tips for Mastering the Closed Beta

The Skull and Bones Closed Beta is available for selected players on PC through Ubisoft Connect from now until August 28, giving an introduction to the pirate adventure and setting them loose to explore the Red Isle and Coast of Africa. From battle tactics to exploration to co-op plundering, Ubisoft News has eight tips for players to make the most of their Closed Beta experience and reach the rank of Buccaneer.

Activision Blizzard Games Coming to Ubisoft+

On August 21, Ubisoft announced the signing of an agreement giving Ubisoft cloud-streaming rights to Activision Blizzard's games, including Call of Duty. The agreement will come into effect upon the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and includes the complete slate of current Activision Blizzard games, as well as all their new titles launching in the 15 years after the closing of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The games will be added to Ubisoft+, and the agreement will also allow Ubisoft to license them to cloud-gaming companies, service providers, and console makers.

Riders Republic Announces 4 Skate Dev Diary Videos

To celebrate Riders Republic's Skate add-on launching on September 27, the development team created four dev diaries to show the community how they authentically recreated the skateboarding experience and culture in game. The first, focusing on the 3C's (character, controls, and camera) of game development, released today; the rest, focusing on world, creation, and audio, will release weekly leading up to Skate's launch.

Anno 1800 National Park Pack

On August 22, Anno 1800 released its National Park cosmetic DLC, bringing some wild nature to the city-building game. The pack comes with a modular lake system for you to craft your park, allowing you to create lakes, rivers, and islands, as well as bridges that will allow your citizens to traverse them. You'll also be able to implement spots for tourists to rest, like the Hikers Hut, Eagle's Nest Café, and campsites. The National Park Pack also includes several ornaments, like the Trail Brunch, Majestic Rock, Hiking Trail, and much more.

Top Ubisoft Games To Play for Gamescom

Ubisoft games have a long history of being nominated for and winning awards at the annual Gamescom event. In honor of Gamescom 2023, the Ubisoft Store is offering up to 75% off some of the games that have been honored in the past. Whether you're raiding through ninth-century England as a Viking warrior in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, liberating the tropical island of Yara from a vicious dictator in Far Cry 6, attacking or defending in Rainbow Six Siege's 5v5 tactical minefield, or designing and building out a thriving city in the New World of Anno 1800, now is the time to save big on some of Ubisoft's most popular titles.

Ubisoft+ Spotlight - Rainbow Six Siege

(Editorial note: This is a series of quick weekly highlights written by Ubisoft News team writers that feature games available with a Ubisoft+ subscription. We hope you'll enjoy reminiscing with us, or perhaps discover something new.)

Brittany Spurlin, Writer/Editor: Rainbow Six Siege is a tactical playground that pits five Attackers against five Defenders to protect or neutralize a bomb. The mission is simple: Attackers need to get through the Defenders and defuse the bomb before it detonates, and the Defenders need to, well, stop them. Each Operator comes equipped with a gadget (like the BU-GI Auto-Breacher mentioned earlier in this article) that gives players a unique edge in the fight. With over 65 Operators in Rainbow Six Siege (and more being regularly added, like Operation Heavy Mettle's Ram), you'll have no shortage of options that let you play to your gameplay strengths and accomplish the task at hand, whether you're launching incendiary grenades with Tachanka and his Shumikha Launcher; projecting deceptive Prisma holograms with Alibi; concealing your movement with Nøkk; or confusing enemies with Sens and their ROU Projector system.

Before each match, you'll take part in the Preparation Phase, which gives Defenders time to set traps, reinforce walls, deploy shields, and whatever else they need to do to shore up defenses on the bomb; and Attackers the opportunity to scout out the map, getting valuable intel on where the bomb is located, which Defenders and corresponding gadgets their opponents are using, and any traps that may lie in wait.

You can play Rainbow Six Siege Ultimate Edition, which includes over 46 Operators and four Operator sets, today with a Ubisoft+ subscription.

Game Updates

The Division 2 deployed Title Update 18.4 on August 21.

• Fixed an issue with Determined and Perfect Determined talent being triggered by skills that have impact damage

• Added Global Events to the season schedule, including Reanimated, SHD Exposed, and Golden Bullet