This past week, Ubisoft announced the development of a new free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter named Ghost Recon Frontline. While Ghost Recon Frontline appeared to be a battle royale game, it's rather a Tarkov-like where players seek to complete missions and extract within 102-player PvP hot zones. Regardless, Ghost Recon Frontline received early negative feedback due to preconceptions regarding battle royales. Now Ghost Recon has hit its second road bump, just a week after its announcement, with the delay of its first Closed Test.
In an announcement shared on Twitter Wednesday morning, Ubisoft confirmed that it had decided to delay Ghost Recon Frontline's Closed Test. No substantial explanation is provided for the delay. All Ubisoft is willing to say is that the company has "decided it is best to postpone" Ghost Recon Frontline's Closed Test. A new date for the Closed Test was not provided, with Ubisoft saying that it'll provide more information regarding the Closed Test's new start time as it's able.
That Ubisoft announced a Closed Test so quickly after Ghost Recon Frontline's reveal came as a significant surprise, though it was obviously overshadowed by the reactionary discourse surrounding the project. The YouTube trailer for Ghost Recon Frontline was flooded with dislikes, for example. The test was intended to be very limited in nature, open solely to PC gamers in Europe, and was set to begin on October 14. Plans to bring tests to other platforms in the future were also teased, as Ghost Recon Frontline is planned for PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, too.
Ghost Recon Frontline was described by Ubisoft as being in "early development," which begs the question as to whether it was announced too early. Its debut clearly had its issues, as vocal online critics took issue with the direction of the Ghost Recon series as well as the necessity of another massive multiplayer shooter -- even if Ghost Recon Frontline isn't a battle royale at all.
Online multiplayer games need to be tested both early and often in development, in order to gather feedback for key design decisions and to begin building infrastructure. It's possible, if not likely, that Ubisoft chose to announce Ghost Recon Frontline earlier than necessary to allow the team to start running these tests. Ultimately, that announcement may have been too early.
It seems like Ubisoft is dodging the ongoing negative feedback surrounding Ghost Recon Frontline, though there could be any number of nonapparent justifications, too. Regardless of the reasons for the delay, few would question that Ghost Recon Frontline could use a better reveal further down the road.
Ghost Recon Frontline is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
