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Ubisoft has announced another free-to-play spin-off for one of their major franchises, but insist it’s not a standard battle royale.
Just a day after speculation that Ubisoft is planning a new free-to-play version of Far Cry, they’ve announced one for another of their franchises, in the form of Ghost Recon Frontline.
The main Expedition mode involves 102 players in teams of three and according to Ubisoft it’s intended as a ‘new take on the battle royale genre’.
Expedition has teams completing objectives before calling for an extraction to bank their win. Importantly, there’ll be no steadily shrinking circle or zone, to restrict the size of the map over time – causing some fans to compare it more to Escape From Tarkov than Fortnite.
There are other modes planned as well, with Control having just two teams of nine players each, although it was only mentioned in passing during the reveal.
Even more vaguely, there was also talk of a ‘traditional arena shooter’ and other modes which will be added to the game later, as it advances through its seasons.
The reveal was made as part of Ghost Recon’s 20th anniversary, which is slightly unkind as the new game really doesn’t seem to have much in common with the older titles, which were complex tactical shooters.
Ubisoft does promise that will be reflected in Frontline to a degree, at least more than something like Call Of Duty: Warzone, but it’s not very obvious at the moment.
The announcement continues the publisher’s stated goal to create more free-to-play games in general, which seems likely to end up with spin-offs for all its major franchises, starting with The Division.
Ghost Recon Frontline has no release dated yet and is said to be ‘early’ in development, but there’s a PC-only technical test planned for October 14, if you want to get an early look by signing up here.
Eventually the game will be released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, Stadia, and Luna.
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