The Ghost Recon series hit a low mark with Breakpoint, the 2019 sequel to Wildlands that added RPG-like item drops for the first time in the series. The addition was controversial among fans, just like the decision to launch the game without the signature AI squadmates.
Shortly after its release, Ubisoft acknowledged the disappointing quality of the game. Over the following months, the developers tried to get Ghost Recon Breakpoint closer to the tactical shooter roots of the franchise with the Immersive Mode and the return of AI squadmates. However, it wasn’t enough to salvage the game’s reception; that ship, as they say, had already sailed.
Development on Breakpoint was officially ceased in April 2022 as Ubisoft promised the feedback received with this installment would shape the franchise’s future. Only three months later, Ubisoft canceled another Ghost Recon game, Frontline, which had been conceived as a Battle Royale-inspired spin-off but received a hugely negative reaction from fans.
What about the next mainline Ghost Recon entry, then? Is it coming soon, as hinted by another April 2022 rumor? Not according to leaker Tom Henderson, who said today that the current forecast is for a 2025 release. That’s a reasonable timeframe if we assume that the team behind Breakpoint would immediately set out to produce the next Ghost Recon after ceasing the support of the 2019 game. Henderson didn’t say whether he meant calendar year or fiscal year, though. In the latter case, that would narrow down the release window to March 2025, when Ubisoft’s 2024-25 fiscal year will end. Of course, delays are always possible and even likely, as we regularly see in the industry.
If Henderson’s sources are correct, the unannounced big triple-A game scheduled by Ubisoft for the fiscal year 2023-24 won’t belong to the Ghost Recon franchise. We may find out more about it at E3/Summer Game Fest in the Summer season.
