Ubisoft seems to be going all-in with its selection of free-to-play live service titles. Recently, it revealed Ghost Recon Frontline, which has featured multiplayer in the past but not to this degree. The majority of the franchise focuses on more single-player-focused tactical battles with small-scale multiplayer added in, yet Frontline is essentially a living battle royale world. It’s attempting to make some differences, but the reception to Ghost Recon Frontline hasn’t been too welcoming.
Of course, Frontline is only the most recent entry in a Ubisoft franchise to go this route. Ubisoft had previously announced Division Heartland, taking that franchise in a similar, if more fitting, direction. Yet, it’s not only Ubisoft’s shooters that seem to be getting this treatment. There are rumors that the next Far Cry will be yet another live-service evolving world title, and it makes sense given Ubisoft has already announced Assassin’s Creed Infinity, an entry it describes as an “evolving world with multiple settings.”
The Ubisoft Open World vs. Evolving World
Ubisoft is known for following a pretty thorough open-world model in some games, which many enjoy in games like Far Cry but hate in others like Assassin’s Creed. This move seems to be upping that formula and taking these open-world designs to something more heavily reliant on a continually evolving state.
The language across each of the aforementioned titles—Ghost Recon Frontline, Division Heartland, and Assassin’s Creed Infinity—may even suggest Ubisoft is following a similar model. All of this is to say that, while what Assassin’s Creed Infinity looks like remains to be seen, there’s a high possibility that it is more similar to Ghost Recon Frontline than it is different.
Ubisoft’s Live-Service Formula? Ghost Recon vs. Assassin’s Creed
Ghost Recon Frontline is discussed as a “forever-evolving world,” where seasonal and content updates bring in more game modes, maps, tactical gear, characters, and more. Its primary focus is a game mode called Expedition, which offers a goal-oriented alternative to the standard battle royale formula. Yet, it’ll feature other game modes for players and build upon that season after season. Indeed, based on what’s been revealed so far, it doesn’t seem that different from Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and Fortnite.
Ubisoft’s aforementioned descriptions of Frontline and Assassin’s Creed Infinity (“forever-evolving world” and “evolving world with multiple settings” respectively) are eerily similar. Hopefully, it doesn’t turn Assassin’s Creed into a battle royale game, still electing to focus on its story-based roots, but it’s hard not to see how Assassin’s Creed Infinity could, theoretically, play a lot like Frontline.
Assassin’s Creed Infinity could have a main gameplay mode that focused on the story elements of the franchise, accompanied by other game modes and particularly multiplayer. Now, multiplayer is nothing *that* new for the franchise, but hopefully, these modes are not all multiplayer-focused. Whereas Ubisoft intends to add more maps to Ghost Recon Frontline, it intends to add more locations to Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Frontline is launching with one map that’ll likely be easily divided among multiple game modes, while Infinity could have 2-3 dominant locations depending on the game mode.
Frontline will be adding new characters, or contractors, each season that can go down various skill paths and be utilized in different ways on the tactical battlefield. Assassin’s Creed Infinity could add multiple Assassins or Templars, allowing players to play both sides of the conflict. In short, the live-service model is pretty clearly defined already, and Ubisoft—despite its own twists here and there—thus far seems to be following it to a letter.
Of course, this is just speculation. No one outside of Ubisoft knows what Assassin’s Creed Infinity is shaping up to be, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that it is something different and unique. At the end of the day, though, it’s a live-service title utilizing similar language to Ghost Recon Frontline, and it seems Ubisoft’s traditional emphasis on open-world titles is slowly shifting to evolving-world titles.
Ghost Recon Frontline is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.