Earlier this month Ubisoft launched Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a sequel to 2017's open world tactical military shooter Ghost Recon Wildlands. The hope was that this new entry would build on its predecessors strengths (of which there were many) and fix its mistakes (of which there were also many), resulting in a genuinely solid multiplayer adventure.
As you may or may not be aware, this has not been the case. Hamstrung by a pointless loot feature, concerning bugs, and tacked-on survival elements Breakpoint launched to poor reviews from both players and critics. At the time of writing, the PS4 version of the game has a score of 56 based on 50 critic reviews, and 2.6 based on 791 user reviews.
There's no getting around the fact that Breakpoint intended as a a huge release for Ubisoft this quarter, has been a failure. This comes from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot himself, who didn't hold back during an earnings call yesterday when it came to explaining to investors why the game missed the mark.
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"While the game's quality appeared on track - based on E3, Gamescom, previews and our latest internal playtests -, critical reception and sales during the game's first weeks were very disappointing," Guillemot explained in a prepared statement.
The CEO also reasoned that a number of the tweaks made to the formula first seen in Ghost Recon Wildlands - such as the loot and survival mechanics - have been " strongly rejected by a significant portion of the community."
"Our strategy of introducing gameplay innovations in our games has had a very positive impact on our brands," he wrote. "However, to win over players, these innovations need to be perfectly implemented in order to offer an optimal experience. This has not yet been sufficiently the case with Ghost Recon Breakpoint."
Guillemot also reasoned that it's "harder to generate interest for a sequel to a Live multiplayer game, when prior iterations benefited from years of optimization." His conclusion here was that Ubisoft needs to allow more time between each iteration of "Live" game.
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Regardless of the state Breakpoint is currently in, Ubisoft "will continue to support the game and listen to the community in order to deliver the necessary improvements." You might remember Ghost Recon Wildlands improved massively in the months following its initial rocky launch, so hopefully Ubisoft can work that same magic for Breakpoint.
Perhaps the biggest consequence of Breakpoint's failure is that Ubisoft has now decided to delay Watch Dogs: Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Siege Quarantine, and two other currently-unannounced games to the 2020-21 fiscal year, meaning they could arrive anytime between April 2020 and March 2021.
This is to allow further development time on the titles that the company is clearly banking on to be big winners, and ostensibly to avoid another messy Breakpoint situation.
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"While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players.
Featured Image Credit: UbisoftTopics: Ubisoft