Ubisoft confirms it’s engaged on a brand new Ghost Recon sport, and it positive appears prefer it'll be a dwell service affair
Ubisoft has confirmed {that a} new Ghost Recon sport is within the works—the primary entry within the sequence since 2019’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.
Throughout Ubisoft’s annual normal shareholders’ assembly (by way of Sport File) CEO Yves Guillemot was requested concerning the writer’s historical past making dwell service video games. Guillemot responded by pointing to the success of Rainbow Six: Siege, earlier than outlining the corporate’s broader technique going ahead:
“Along with the flagship sport that I simply talked about,” Guillemot stated, “our goal is to additionally make sturdy progress within the rising market, usually talking, by persevering with to reinforce our present experiences that we provide—and capitalizing on upcoming launches, reminiscent of The Division and Ghost Recon.”
That is all Guillemot needed to say about this as-yet unannounced Ghost Recon sport. However later within the assembly, Ubisoft’s CFO Frederick Duguet additionally addressed the topic of Ghost Recon. This time, the context was how Ubisoft plans to make use of its funding from Tencent, which acquired a 25% stake in a brand new subsidiary fashioned by the French writer again in March.
To this, Duguet defined the funding will probably be “used for future improvement of different main model names. So we’ve bought… Ghost Recon is only one instance, for our first-person shooter-type video games.” Duguet additionally stated the funds will probably be used to “increase our dwell video games” citing The Crew and For Honor as examples.
Rumours of a brand new Ghost Recon sport have circulated for years, with a brand new entry purportedly being developed by Ubisoft Paris way back to 2021, beneath the codename OVER. Whether or not this is identical sport that Guillemot mentions as an upcoming launch, or a special undertaking completely, is unclear.
Whereas particulars are skinny, Guillemot’s assertion strongly infers that this subsequent Ghost Recon will probably be a dwell service affair. This would not be vastly shocking, given the success Ubisoft has discovered with each Siege and The Division 2 as dwell service experiences. The latest Ghost Recon sport, Breakpoint, additionally strayed into dwell service territory, receiving quite a few main updates between 2019 and 2022. Admittedly, this was primarily as a result of the sport was garbage on launch, as I found to my dismay in my Ghost Recon: Breakpoint evaluate. However Ubisoft partially salvaged its repute in subsequent years (a minimum of, till it tried placing NFTs into the sport) and that have could have pushed the corporate towards a dwell service mannequin for the following sport.
Duguet’s remark about it being an FPS-type expertise can be fascinating. The earlier two Ghost Recon video games, Wildlands and Breakpoint, have been each primarily third-person cowl shooters, so this might imply Ghost Recon is returning to its tactical-FPS roots. Then once more, Duguet might have been utilizing “first-person shooter” as shorthand for “motion sport”, so it is not wholly clear at this level.
It is also value noting that Ubisoft tried making a dwell service Ghost Recon sport as soon as earlier than, within the type of free-to-play battle-royale shooter Ghost Recon: Frontline developed by Ubisoft Bucharest. However that undertaking was cancelled following intense backlash to its announcement, so it’s going to be fascinating to see what classes Ubisoft has realized from that, if this new Ghost Recon is certainly a dwell service affair as Guillemot suggests.