Ubisoft Announces F2P Battle Royale Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline

Not satisfied with to have just one upcoming multiplayer shooter with Tom Clancy's name attached to it, Ubisoft is taking the plunge into battle royales with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline, which was announced yesterday. Unlike XDefiant, with its 6v6 matches and colorful factions, Frontline has a more "serious" look, billing itself as a 100+ player, "free-to-play, tactical-action, massive PVP shooter grounded in the renowned Ghost Recon universe."

Frontline is based around teams of three players, each of whom select their own class, a.k.a. "contractor," which you can swap "even in the heat of battle." Set on Drakemoor Island with its diverse environments, you'll find the usual suite of guns to do your deadly business, and there are a few other gadgets, like turrets and "grenades" that send out a pulse that lets you view enemies behind cover. The ultimate goal seems to be recovering intel and extracting with it -- usually under heavy fire from enemy teams.

It might be a better take, lore-wise, on the Ghost Recon universe than XDefiant -- and definitely has a better name -- but that hasn't stopped Frontline from getting similarly hammered by fans. The YouTube teaser sits at about 20% positive as of this writing, with the usual slate of negative comments -- mostly comparisons to it being a Warzone clone, and even a few digs at lackluster Ubisoft battle royale Hyper Scape.

In any event, Ubisoft is going forward with a closed beta test for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Frontline, which will be conducted on PC in selected European countries. The full game is expected to be launched for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

In other (and perhaps better) Ghost Recon news, Ubisoft is giving away several older games and DLCs to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise. These include Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon for PC, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands Fallen Ghosts DLC for PC and consoles, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint Deep State DLC, all of which are available through October 11. Instructions on how to acquire the games can be found on the Ghost Recon website.