In the two years since 2019's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Ubisoft has mostly gone quiet on the Ghost Recon series as a whole until fairly recently. That in itself doesn't necessarily mean much - sequels to AAA games can sometimes take a year or more's work to have anything presentable, much less ship. Now the new Ghost Recon game - Ghost Recon Frontline - has been announced, but a specific release date is still unclear.
The closed test for Ghost Recon Frontline was delayed a week after it was announced, and reactions to its announcement were fairly negative. This is compounded by the fact that Ghost Recon Breakpoint was not well-received. It was widely panned, not just for its design and gameplay but sometimes for its story and microtransactions, the latter of which initially included "Time Savers" that Ubisoft was forced to pull. In fact, just about any in-game item could be bought with real money, though these boosts were automatically balanced out in multiplayer play. The company has nevertheless stayed committed - all told, there have been multiple major pieces of Ghost Recon Breakpoint DLC so far.
Before Frontline's reveal, the roadmap for Ghost Recon Breakpoint strongly suggested that if there were a sequel in the works, it wouldn't launch in 2021. So, it wasn't too surprising that the new Ghost Recon game was announced with an unspecified 2022 release date. Due to the negative reception of Breakpoint and the less-than-enthusiastic response to Frontline, it's also certainly possible the game will get pushed back further while Ubisoft refines it.
Will Ghost Recon Frontline Really Release In 2022?
Ghost Recon Frontline is a free-to-play, massive PvP online multiplayer game, with several different game modes. However, many fans were disappointed that the new Ghost Recon game is a battle royale instead of a true Ghost Recon series sequel. While a large-scale PvP game sounds exciting, it's not really what many fans were wanting.
Combining this fact with Ghost Recon Breakpoint's reception, it seems likely that Ubisoft may take its time with the follow-up, perhaps reconsidering what it wants the series to be. The move wouldn't be unprecedented, even within Ubisoft - Assassin's Creed became an annual series between 2009 and 2015, but took a year off for Assassin's Creed Origins, which introduced considerably different combat and progression mechanics. Ghost Recon Wildlands was likewise a radical departure from its predecessors, taking on both an open world and a third-person perspective.
Realistically, however, it seems that without any pandemic-related delays (which are always possible) the new Ghost Recon game will come out sometime in 2022. Fall 2022 seems like the most probable window - since that would give Ubisoft more time to polish the game. Of course, Ghost Recon Frontline could surprise gamers by revealing an early 2022 release date, which is already shaping up to be a crowded time for new releases.