It’s only been a matter of days since Ubisoft announced a new Ghost Recon game, Frontline, and public reception to its reveal was swift and merciless. And now, the game’s planned closed beta testing is being pushed back.
Earlier today, the game’s official Twitter account posted a message saying, “we have decided it is best to postpone the closed test for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline.”
“The development team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible,” it adds. “We’ll share details on the new date for the Closed Test as soon as we can.”
“Thank you for your support.”
Reaction to Frontline’s reveal has been poor, and that’s me being kind. The battle royale game has almost nothing in common with the series’ legacy, and fans, fed up not just with Ubisoft’s recent history with Ghost Recon, but with the publisher’s current creative rut in general, downvoted its first trailer to oblivion.
Even under this apologetic tweet, fans are leaving messages like:
How about cancel the battle royale and make a real Ghost Recon game? The fanbase gave the feedback to improve Breakpoint, you guys showed a glimpse that were trying to improve the game, and now we are on the total opposite direction.
...this game flies in the face of us GR fans. Since Breakpoint we the fans have been hammering Ubi with feedback on what makes a GR game and how to fix BP. This comes off as tone deaf.
Guys you have a plethora of past Ghost Recon games to use. You continuously say that you’re “listening to the community” Then LISTEN to your community. We want you to go back to your tactical roots. Back to the thing that made Ghost Recon a fantastic series in the first place
Now, angry fans of a video game series are nothing new, and I’m not here to start airing every grievance every fan has with a franchise’s direction. But in this case, I feel for these guys! I used to love Ghost Recon, but the further Ubisoft have moved away from what made the earlier games so much fun, the less interest I’ve had in it, and the less relevance there surely is in using the brand name for games that have nothing to do with the public’s perception of them.
Plus you’ve got to wonder just what a postponement can do here to appease anyone. People’s issues with the game are fundamental, so it’s not like tweaks to the battle royale formula are going to change fan’s minds, when their main problem is...that the game’s showpiece mode is a battle royale game.