Son livre est devenu l’un des FPS les plus joués au monde #gaming

Tom Clancy, a bestselling author whose previous books had sold millions of copies, was writing a new novel from his sprawling estate in Maryland about the fight against terrorism and the clash between elite soldiers and the worst terrorist groups.

Tom, who also ran a video game studio, ordered the adaptation of the novel into a video game before he had even finished writing it, an exceptionally rare practice for that era.

Upon release, the Rainbow Six novel achieved phenomenal commercial success, selling millions of copies like all of Tom Clancy's books.

The video game, though excellent, sold very disappointingly despite its proven quality.

Tom Clancy insisted that the game be ultra-realistic, ultra-tactical and slow, requiring meticulous planning of attacks and penalizing every mistake.

• In the early 2000s, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor did not yet exist. • The FPS market was dominated by futuristic and hyperactive games like Unreal Tournament. • Players wanted fast and exciting experiences, not a tactical and stressful game.

The press recognized that the game was incredibly tense and stressful, complex and demanding, with major consequences tied to every small tactical cover mistake.

For the vast majority of players, the game was too slow, too hard, and too demanding compared to the entertainment standards of the era.

Tom Clancy never saw his video games become major worldwide successes like his books did, although the game eventually became popular in the United States.

Fifteen years after the game's initial release, shortly after Tom Clancy's death, a French studio acquired the rights to adapt his works into video games.

The French studio understood that by 2020, the market had changed: players now loved slow, tactical, and realistic games, but wanted to play in multiplayer against their friends rather than against the computer.

The studio decided to create the game Tom would have wanted to see: an incredibly realistic and tactical FPS, but based on genuine team combat.

The game resulting from the adaptation of Tom's novel is called Rainbow Six.

Rainbow Six became one of the most-played games in the world, with approximately 100,000 active players each day.

Since 2025, Rainbow Six has become a free-to-play game, allowing a much wider audience to access it.

Tom Clancy would likely have been happy to see his literary universe transformed into one of the largest and most engaged video game communities in the world.