Introduction
I'm not working for Ubisoft and I'm not associated with the studio in any way. However, I have some friends there who were kind enough to share with me some (a lot) informations about the upcoming season of the game. They are trustworthy, so I'm pretty confident they did not give me any fake information. Of course some things can still change, but most of the stuff you will see here are already set in stone. Keep in mind, I'm not a native English speaker, but I'll try my best to be as understandable as possible. Also, please don't ask me questions about the insiders' identity. They don't wanna lose their job, and I don't want to talk about them either.
Changes in the development
Ubi had a rough time in the past year. Y'know, Vivendi, Watch Dogs 2's failure (bad sales), etc. But they were very suprised by the (constantly growing) success of Rainbow Six: Siege. The studio realized they should focus on this game more, because it has a huge amount of possibilities. They want it to become one of the biggest (if not the biggest) competitive shooter(s). They have a huge ambition. That's the real reason why Pro League become PC-only. They want the PC platform to be the true home of this game (for numerous reasons), because in the long term PC will be the platform on which they can compete with other games, like CS for example. It's the biggest platform financially-wise for them (even if consoles have larger base right now). Sorry, it's hard to explain it in English.
After the failure of Watch Dogs 2 Ubi stopped the production of Watch Dogs 3 (codenamed Blueshift inside of the studio). It was in a relatively early-stage, as far as I know. Most of the team behind this game are now working on R6S (since December, I think), so the team behind R6S has grown by an extremely big amount. The reason behind this is because Ubi want to rework the complete game in meaningful games - while also fixing the numerous glitches and problems this game has (like matchmaking for example), and this would have been impossible with the original, smaller team. Hell, the original team even struggled to fix the problems, let alone making new gameplay functions.
The studio will also start to monitor Reddit (and Ubi forums of course) 0-24 from February 2nd (they will have more community managers, like It's Epi) to be aware of the feedback that the cumminity has to say.
Season 1 (or 5, it depends) leaks
As you probably know, the first season is called Velvet Shell. It will include Mira, who is an operator who can repair the gadgets of her teammates. The first concept was different however. The devs wanted Mira to be an operator who can buff her teammates' gadgets or ability (bigger FOV for Valkyrie cam, Jager's ADS systems can take out more grenades, etc.). This idea has been scrapped however for different gameplay-balance reasons. But there still a chance that an operator will appear with this special ability in the future.
The second operator will have some sort of goggles that would be a hybrid between thermal and night vision. I don't really understand, how it will work, but the guys at Ubi said me it won't be OP. Well, I hope so. His name is Lux by the way (I think it means light).
In the previous section, I talked about meaningful additions to the gameplay. Well, it starts with Season 1. The lighting "fix" in the last season was just a temporarily solution. They working on a complete rework for a while now, and it will debut in the new season (the video about it will debut at the R6S Invitational Event next month, and it will be very similar to the E3 2014 gameplay).
Sorry about my excitment, but YES! FUCKING YES! So yeah, you will be able to shoot out lights, hide in the darkness, etc. Operators will have new weapon attachments, such as flashlights, and some other things as well, but I don't want everything to give you away. :P
The flashlights will be very balanced. With the use of it, enemies can track/realize your position, however you can slightly blind enemies with it. The implementing of the new lighting system will create of a lot of differen tactics and gameplay scenarios. The hybrid sight on Lux is important, because this way devs can ensure it won't be useles on day time maps.
There will be a mid-season reinforcement, I know that IQ will get an important buff, and maybe Kapkan a little too.
I almost forgot: the new map is a villa/disco with a pool (yeah, all at the same time, LOL).
Season 2 leaks
It will be called Hollow Point, and it will include 2 new operators along with a new map, called Casino. All I know for know is one of them will be a shield operator.
Witch each and every season in this year, there will be new interesting gameplay additions (every three monts) to elevate the game to a next level. This season realistics uniforms will debut. It won't be a huge work for devs, but it will give them enough time to fix networking, and some other problems, while also adding a lot of quality of life improvements. There will be something like a shooting range, map-selection, reworked UI/menus and match-making screen, etc.
The realistics uniforms will be just skins, but they will affect the gameplay in a meaningful way too thanks to the reworked lighting system. You will be able to hide better for example on Yacht wide a blue-white outfit. It will act as a camoflague.
The mid-season reinforcement will change some things about Castle (huge buff incoming), and some other operators as well. It was told to me that with this update the game will be more balanced than ever.
Oh, and if you are interested in this, there will be a new game mode. :P
Season 3 leaks
I don't know too much about this season besides it will include FOUR operators, two of them based on community suggestions. I guess there's too many good ideas to let them in the parking slot. Also, a weather system will debut (which will be further improved in season 4). It will add rain, snow -and sandstorm, etc. It will shake up the meta, and bring new tactical possibilities into the game. Players will be able to use the momentarily storm to hide from spawn-killers, and get into the building undetected, or use the sound of a thunderbolt to switch position without worrying that someone will hear it. I'm very excited about this.
The reason behind this is implemented after the lighting overhaul is because it NEEDS the new lighting model to work as intended, and also it takes more time to make.
I don't know anything about the mid-season reinforcements.
Season 4 leaks
This time there will be four new operators too, in the same way, as in the 3rd season, and two maps (one with the mid-season reinforcement). The devs further expand the weather system, and add one more meaningful gameplay addition. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that.
Things aren't decided yet
There may be a second map in Season 3
There may be four operators in Season 2 (if that's true, this season would be the best of all)
I WILL UPDATE THIS SECTION SOON
That's all for now, later I will update this thread, but now I have some other things to do. Until then, have fun with reading and speculating.