Ghost Recon Breakpoint Disappoints, So Here's Ubisoft's Plan

Ubisoft reports that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint had disappointing sales, but the company confirmed it will continue to "support the game and listen to the community in order to deliver the necessary improvements."

In an earnings release, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that "critical reception and sales during [Ghost Recon Breakpoint's] first weeks were very disappointing." Guillemot outlined three causes for this: 1. There isn't enough time between live-game experiences; 2. with Ghost Recon Breakpoint's innovative implementations weren't handled properly; and 3. Ghost Recon Breakpoint didn't stand out amongst the competition.

Ubisoft said it is "tackling these issues head-on and already are implementing significant changes to our production processes." To do this, Guillemot has acknowledged the need to "make sure there is more time between each iteration of Live games." This has resulted in some of Ubisoft's other games suffering delays, such as Gods & Monsters, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Watch Dogs: Legion. Ubisoft's next fiscal year, which is set between April 2020 and March 31, 2021, will be packed with five total AAA games including the three recently delayed.

Delaying a few of the company's biggest releases is a direct response to Ghost Recon Breakpoint's lukewarm reception. Guillemot said of the delays: "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."

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint launched for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 4 to rather negative reviews. In our own review, we gave Ghost Recon Breakpoint a 4/10, saying, "It would make sense if the addition of loot were in service of guiding people to spend real money on better guns, but even then the stats are so meaningless it would take a lot of convincing. There's some surprising fun to be had stealthily infiltrating enemy compounds and playing with friends, but Breakpoint is still a generic and distinctly sub-par game. It's essentially every Ubisoft open-world game rolled into one, failing to excel in any one area or establish its own identity. Breakpoint is a messy, confused game and a ghost of the series' former self."