Ubisoft is one of the biggest developers/publishers in the modern gaming landscape. The French gaming giant had established its reputation with a consistently high-quality output during the sixth and seventh generation of consoles. However, the developer’s insistence on pumping out more entries for its darling franchises has been scrutinized by fans lately.

Furthermore, the developer has also shown an increasing amount of interest in the battle royale genre. Ubisoft’s upcoming Ghost Recon Frontline aims to tap into the already crowded market of free-to-play battle royale games once again, which has some fans disgruntled and others cautiously hoping that Ghost Recon Frontline will turn out to be great.

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Ubisoft’s History With Battle Royales

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The battle royale craze started all the way back in 2017 when PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds gained massive popularity. Developers such as Epic Games quickly jumped the gun with titles like Fortnite, and so did EA with Apex Legends. Ubisoft admittedly came a bit late to the party with its game Hyper Scape, which was released just last year.

Hyper Scape seemed like a fun concept at first, with its interesting spin on the last-man-standing staple of the genre. The movement was fun, and its Twitch viewer integration was also innovative in its own way. However, much of the game’s better aspects were undermined by a repetitive map design, balance issues, and a general sloppiness within the game’s combat loop. As player numbers dropped rapidly just weeks after launch, Ubisoft did little to address the major grievances of fans. Thus, Hyper Scape was inadvertently left to die, and support for the game was disbanded mere months after launch.

Will Ghost Recon Frontline Change Ubisoft’s Battle Royale Reputation?

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Considering the aforementioned death of Ubisoft’s last outing with the genre, it’s largely understandable that fans might be exercising caution with any future free-to-play titles from the publisher. The sentiment is further backed by the reaction to the Ghost Recon Frontline reveal trailer, which has almost 4 times more dislikes than it does likes.

Of course, one should never judge a book by its cover, and it stands true in the case of Ghost Recon Frontline as well. It could certainly turn out to be a success, but that prospect seems highly unlikely right now. Ubisoft’s insistence on going down the route of free-to-play battle royale shooter in the case of Ghost Recon Frontline seems to be largely influenced by the success of other games than it does by genuine passion. The publisher seems heavily inspired by the success of games like Call of Duty Warzone and Apex Legends, but by trying to copy that success, Ghost Recon might retread the same path as Hyper Scape.

Ubisoft also seems set on turning every franchise into a live-service title, a concept that does not suit every game and genre. This has been a recurring issue for the publisher's games, most notably with the Ghost Recon IP. Ghost Recon Breakpoint was bombarded with negative reception upon launch for the developer’s insistence on turning the game into a live service game instead of a traditional tactical shooter.

With two critical and commercial disappointments in a row, the Ghost Recon brand has been negatively impacted. Fans are already disapproving of the new title, too, and as such Ubisoft has delayed the beta to a later date. Whether a delay will hold any ramifications to the game’s reputation remains unknown for now, but it would certainly be nice to see Ghost Recon Frontline become a hit with fans.

Ghost Recon Frontline is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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