Ubisoft recently announced Ghost Recon Frontline, a free-to-play battle royale title set in the iconic shooter franchise. Its announcement has received a mixed reception, as while many fans are excited to see Ghost Recon expanding to a new genre, others are disappointed that this isn't a more traditional entry in the series. Regardless, this is not the first time Ubisoft has released a free-to-play PvP Ghost Recon game, as many forget Ghost Recon Phantoms from 2014.
While it did have fans, Ghost Recon Phantoms was far from a big success, and its servers were shut down in 2016. With Ghost Recon Frontline potentially foreshadowing Ubisoft's future, many fans hope the game will be a signal of good things to come. There are still numerous unknowns about Frontline, but if the developers want it to succeed there are some lessons from Ghost Recon Phantoms that should be learned.
What Was Ghost Recon Phantoms?
Ghost Recon Phantoms was a free-to-play third-person multiplayer shooter developed by Ubisoft Singapore, the studio known for working on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and every Assassin's Creed title since Assassin's Creed 2. The game had three classes, each with two active and passive abilities, and players could equip one of each category when making loadouts. Giving players different classes to choose from has been present in a number of entries in the series, including the most recent Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Players would then fight across a dozen maps in four game modes: Team Deathmatch, Conquest, Onslaught, and Holdout. The majority of the modes were objective-focused, with teams alternating attacking and defending objectives in Onslaught, fighting over multiple capture zones in Conquest, and battling over a central control point in a symmetrical map in Holdout. Ghost Recon Phantoms also let players customize their loadouts with a number of weapons that included sidearms, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and more. While the weapon customization system would not stack up to modern weapon customization systems, it was more than sufficient at the time.
Why Ghost Recon Phantoms Failed
There are a few possible reasons Ghost Recon Phantoms failed to maintain a playerbase. One is how close it released to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Future Soldier was very well received and included its own co-op and multiplayer modes, releasing just two years before Ghost Recon Phantoms. Not only did this split the Ghost Recon fanbase between two games, it also inevitably led to many comparisons being drawn between the two.
Another potential reason for the game's failure was the extreme amount of DLC. There was over $1,000 worth of DLC to purchase that offered players options for a variety of cosmetics and weapons. Many of the weapons featured in the DLC packs were objectively better than those players could earn by just playing the game, making it feel very pay-to-win. Multiplayer games being pay-to-win is always a contentious subject, and Ghost Recon Phantoms was unable to shake the stigma once it set in. This made it difficult for the game to attract new fans as older players left the game, both because of its reputation and because new players had a harder experience getting started without the gear and weaponry of experienced players.
How Ghost Recon Frontline Could Be Different
Luckily for Ubisoft, the model for a successful free-to-play online shooter has been established across the industry. This could help Ghost Recon Frontline avoid many of the mistakes that proved disastrous for Ghost Recon Phantoms, such as only having cosmetics be purchasable with microtransactions. It seems likely the game will adopt a seasonal Battle Pass model, as has been popularized by games like Call of Duty and Apex Legends. This would see players able to purchase passes to unlock various cosmetics each season while enjoying new content separate from it. This would bring the game in-line with competitors like Call of Duty: Warzone, which should help it attract players.
Ghost Recon Frontline should also benefit from Ubisoft updating the game with new content like weapons, gadgets, and map changes. This will likely keep players coming back to the game, as well as attract new players that continuue to hear about it from time to time. Ubisoft has already said Ghost Recon Frontline will have an evolving world, so it seems the developer is planning on having new content to attract players in the long run. The game will also benefit from offering a different experience than recent Ghost Recon games, as none have featured a full battle royale mode at the scope of Ghost Recon Frontline.
It will be interesting to see what other features Ubisoft has yet to announce regarding its next battle royale. Ghost Recon Frontline has received some backlash since its announcement, so hopefully the developer will be able to show more off to convince doubtful players that it is not only a unique take on the battle royale genre, but also a worthy entry in the classic series.
Ghost Recon Frontline is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.