Ubisoft’s ongoing Splinter Cell revival is gathering momentum. After some teasing, the developer has confirmed that series hero Sam Fisher will be a playable character in the third season of Rainbow Six: Siege, Operation Shadow Legacy. True to his clandestine roots, he’ll pack a suppressed pistol and a “two-way drill camera” that will let you see both sides of a wall and even destroy gadgets. You’ll also have Fisher’s signature SC-3000K assault rifle or an MP7 to fight back when things get rough.

Shadow Legacy will also bring some improvements to the game itself, including a new contextual ping system, reworked EMP grenades, match replays and web-based stat tracking. You can also expect a refreshed Chalet map with new paths.

It’s no secret that some games are designed to riff on others’ ideas, but Ubisoft believes one title is far too similar to let it go unchecked. Bloomberg reports that the publisher has sued Apple and Google for selling Area F2, a game it claims is a “near carbon copy” of Rainbow Six: Siege meant to “piggyback” on Ubisoft’s success. The mobile title from Alibaba’s Ejoy and Qookka Games allegedly borrows “virtually every aspect” of Ubisoft’s character-driven team shooter, right down to the interface layout. Drones, destructible walls and rappelling down walls are also staples of both games.

Ubisoft said it had alerted Apple and Google to the reported copyright violations, but that both had so far declined to pull Area F2 from their respective app stores.

“I can’t give you a date is because those dates are, in the end, on the people doing the next-gen consoles,” said Athanassof. “What I can tell you is that we are going to be on [PS5 and Xbox Series X] from launch.”

Ubisoft’s cross-platform compatibility promise for Rainbow Six Siege is in line with what Microsoft itself guaranteed Halo: Infinite and other titles. Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty recently said that first-party Series X titles will also be playable on Xbox One, adding that Microsoft’s own Series X games won’t be exclusive to that console for a while.

Meanwhile, Athanassoff also told PCGamesN that Rainbow Six Siege will be the same version on next-gen consoles that PC players will already be playing. “What we want for this game is that we never, never, never split our community,” said game director Leroy Athanassoff. “We want to be on as [many] platforms as possible.” However, while players will get the most up-to-date version of Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft has already said that the Division 2 won’t be coming natively to PS5, though it could work via backwards compatibility.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Six cross-platform platform compatibility is still up in the air. “We would love to be fully cross-play — have Xbox players matchmaking against the PlayStation players,” said Athanassof. “Again, this is more a discussion between Microsoft and Sony.” All that said, PC cross-platform play is a non-starter, even though everyone will be playing the same game. “I don’t think there will ever be console cross-play with PC,” he said.

Remedy Entertainment’s Control wasn’t too far behind with eight. It picked up nominations such as game of the year, game direction, art direction and two performance nods. The Outer Worlds, meanwhile, snagged four nominations, including game of the year and RPG.

Joining that trio in the game of the year category are Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Resident Evil 2 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. SSBU also picked up best family game and fighting game nominations. Resident Evil 2 claimed three other nods for design, acton/adventure and game direction. Sekiro‘s four additional nominations are in the game direction, art direction, audio design and action/adventure categories.

Fortnite snagged three nominations, including for best esports game, ongoing game and community support. Fortnite World Cup winner Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was nominated for best esports player as was that tournament for esports event. Other popular ongoing and esports games to pick up nominations include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Apex Legends, Overwatch, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.

Several other games have nominations, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (three), Gears 5 (three), Sayonara Wild Hearts (three), Borderlands 3 (two) and the game seemingly everyone was talking about not too long ago, Untitled Goose Game (two).

One particularly notable name misses out on the content creator of the year category: last year’s winner, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. The nominees this time around are Jack “Courage” Dunlop, Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo, Soleil “Ewok” Wheeler, David “Grefg” Martínez and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek.

You’ll find out which titles and personalities will take home prizes when The Game Awards takes place December 12th. As ever, you can expect plenty of game announcements and world premieres on that night too.

Much like other games, Siege‘s full-fledged Battle Pass will be divided into free and paid tracks. You can earn items by completing goals in either track, but you can safely presume that the most desirable goodies will only be available in the paid tier. Either pass will shed more light on Rainbow director Dr. Harishva “Harry” Pandey, who’ll serve as a narrator explaining the origins of Rainbow Six’s various operators.

The third season, Operation Ember Rise, introduces both a reworked Kanal map (with new paths and stairs to improve navigation) as well as two new operators. The Peruvian attacker Amaru (above) sports a Garra grappling hook that helps her infiltrate windows “in record time,” while the Mexican defender Goyo will brandish a Volcan Shield that both blocks pathways and packs an incendiary bomb.

The test server for Ember Rise switches on August 19th. It’ll take a while after that before the season is broadly available.

It’s unsurprising that Ubisoft would go the pass route. This provides a steady stream of money from players determined to have the latest gear, and gives players an incentive to play regularly when they might otherwise take a break. Whether or not gamers leap on the concept is another story. Siege has remained popular even in the face of heated competition, but there’s no guarantee that a formula borrowed from battle royale titles will translate well here.