The first is Ghost Recon Frontline, the free-to-play battle royale shooter that was announced last year and was instantly met with widespread backlash and criticism for its departure from the series’ traditional style in order to chase trends. The game was delayed shortly afterward, and updates on it dried up, so it’s not surprising that Ubisoft has deemed the project dispensable. A new mainline Ghost Recon game is reportedly also in development. Read more on that through here.

Then there’s Splinter Cell VR, which was confirmed to be in developing exclusively for Meta headsets back in 2020. Again, there were next to no updates on the game following that, so this cancellation doesn’t come as a surprise. Ubisoft is currently also working on a ground-up remake of the original Splinter Cell.

Finally, Ubisoft also confirmed that it has cancelled two more games, neither of which had been announced yet. The company has cited financial reasons for all of these cancellations, but failed to elaborate on what exactly that meant.

Ubisoft has also delayed the launch of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora into the next fiscal year.

“2022-23 will see the first benefits from this strategy as we look to significantly grow our top line,” says the report. “The biggest driver of our topline growth will be our diverse line-up of premium games, including Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Skull & Bones, as well as other exciting titles.”

Free-to-play releases will also reportedly “benefit” the company with “some of them” undergoing internal and external test phases while being in the “final stages of development.”

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is slated to release this year for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC and Google Stadia with Ubisoft Massive seeking playtesters last month. It could be released in time for the next film, Avatar: The Way of Water, which is out in December. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope was previously thought to be delayed to next year but is seemingly on track for a Holiday 2022 release on Nintendo Switch.

As for Skull and Bones, footage of its recent playtest leaked which prompted Ubisoft Singapore to release a new gameplay clip. It’s still currently slated for release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Regarding the company’s free-to-play releases, XDefiant has reportedly added DedSec from Watch Dogs as a faction after dropping the “Tom Clancy” branding. There’s been no official word on Ghost Recon Frontline, though a brand new title in the series is reportedly coming next year.

Then there’s Project Q, a team battle title that’s currently in “early development,” though its free-to-play status hasn’t been confirmed. As always, stay tuned for more details.

The two firms, which are the biggest in private equity worldwide, have reportedly been “studying the French business” and have “preliminary takeover interest.” While Ubisoft hasn’t had “any serious negotiations with potential acquirers,” it has allegedly worked with consultancy firms in the past few years to audit the business as per Kotaku’s sources. This is apparently a sign that the company is “trying to tidy up its books for a potential sale.”

The highlight of Kotaku’s report, however, is concerning development on the newest titles in the Far Cry, Ghost Recon and Assassin’s Creed franchises. According to three sources familiar with the developer, they’re apparently “further out” than Ubisoft has previously planned. As such, the company has some 20 titles that it’s looking to announce and/or discuss in the coming months as per insider Tom Henderson, and we’ve already seen announcements for games like Project Q.

A Ubisoft spokesperson told Kotaku that it didn’t “comment on rumors or speculation” and that it has “unmatched creative and production capacities, with more than 20,000 talented people collaborating across our global studios on game development.” “Thanks to them and to our long-term approach and appetite for taking creative risks, we have built some of the industry’s strongest proprietary brands and have many promising new brands and projects on the horizon. We also have one the industry’s deepest and most diversified portfolios, cutting-edge services and technologies, and a large and growing community of engaged players.

“As a result, we’re ideally positioned to capitalize on the rapid industry growth and platform opportunities that are emerging right now.”

Stay tuned for any potential developments in the coming months though, especially with major players like Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks and Bungie having been acquired over the past year.

A report published by Kotaku claims that according to sources familiar with the matter, a new mainline Ghost Recon game is in development at Ubisoft’s Paris studio. The game, codenamed OVER, was apparently first mentioned in last year’s GeForce Now leak. According to the report, it’s been in development for over a year, and is currently targeting a launch in fiscal year 2023, which ends on March 31 next year.

Other details on the game are scant, though fans of the series will be anxious to know if it’s going to feature NFTs again. Ghost Recon Breakpoint served as the introduction for Ubisoft Quartz, the company’s first foray into NFTs, leading to an already beleaguered game receiving even more widespread criticism and backlash. Given the fact that the company has said it’s going to keep investing in the NFT space, there’s a chance that the next Ghost Recon game follows suit.

If the game is actually targeting a launch before April next year, it’s likely to be announced in the coming months. Reportedly, Ubisoft has 20 announcements and updates planned for the near future, which also includes reveals of new games, so there’s a chance that this will be part of that.

Meanwhile, Kotaku also claims that Ghost Recon Frontline – which was indefinitely delayed not long after its announcement, also due to widespread backlash – is undergoing a “reset”, and as such, probably won’t be releasing anytime soon.

Ghost Recon Frontline was announced during the franchise’s 20th anniversary celebration and is a free to play, battle royale shooter. It supports over 100 players in Expedition matches with groups of three teaming together and completing different objectives for intel. Once enough intel is collected, teams can then extract from the map, though other squads are alerted to their location and can stop them.

Of course, due to its PvP-focused nature and more action-heavy approach, Ghost Recon Frontline was immediately panned, garnering hefty dislikes on its announcement video. It’s currently in development for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

https://twitter.com/GRFrontline/status/1448287424291999746

On top of being free-to-play, Ghost Recon Frontline will differ from its predecessors in other ways as well. It will be entirely PvP focused, for starters, and set on Drakemoor Island, an open world that, according to Ubisoft, is “full of diverse landmarks and biomes.” There will be a variety of game modes, with the flagship mode being Expedition, which is described as a “new take on the battle royale genre.”

In Expedition matches, more than 100 players will battle against each other in groups of three. There will be no shrinking circle, and each group will be handed dynamic objectives across the map, with the ultimate goal being to collecting enough intel to be call for an extraction at a drop zone. Once an extraction has been called, all other remaining players on the map will be alerted to that squad’s location and the incoming extraction, and escaping successfully will result in victory.

Ghost Recon Frontline will also feature “a large set of tactical support tools” and is promising a military experience with quite a bit of freedom when it comes to progression and customization. Three classes have been revealed, including Assault (specializes in close-range combat), Support (specializes in fortifications), and Scout (specializes in Recon). Players will even be able to switch between classes on the fly in the heat of battle.

Ghost Recon Frontline will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia, and Luna. An exact release date hasn’t been announced but Ubisoft says there will be multiple closed tests prior to release. The first of these will take place from October 14 to October 21 exclusively for PC, and in Europe only. It will include all three of the aforementioned classes, and registrations are open here.