Ubisoft Cancels Ghost Recon Frontline & Splinter Cell VR, Delays Frontiers Of Pandora

After cancelling the Ghost Recon Frontline beta test a day before it was set to start last year, Ubisoft has officially cancelled the game itself. The decision to cancel the free-to-play battle royale was revealed during the French publisher’s Q1 2022 investor call despite the company’s “better than expected” performance in the past quarter.

The game’s cancellation was presumably due to the extremely negative reactions it got from the moment it was announced in October 2021. Along with Ghost Recon Frontline, Ubisoft has also cancelled Splinter VR and two unannounced games in line with their efforts to reduce costs due to “current economic uncertainties.”

The publisher has also delayed the launch of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to sometime in 2023-24, along with a smaller unannounced premium game. Based on the company’s fiscal year, those releases could be anytime between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024.

“While this additional development time is a reflection of the current ongoing constraints on productions across the industry, we are hard at work to design the most efficient working conditions to ensure both flexibility for our teams as well as strong productivity while delivering the best experiences to players,” said Ubisoft. “We are committed to delivering a cutting-edge immersive experience that takes full advantage of next-gen technology, as this amazing global entertainment brand represents a major multi-year opportunity for Ubisoft.”

“What we feel is the Avatar brand can become a videogame brand,” said CEO Yves Guillemot during the investor call. “So because the potential is just enormous, because there are also movies coming and lots of activity on that brand in the next few years, we are treating that brand like a videogame brand. So we are putting all the energy of the team to make sure it is a fantastic game.”

“As we want to make it a videogame industry brand, it is important to us that we come with something that is perfect,” he added.

Too bad Ubisoft won’t be able to take advantage of Avatar: The Way of the Water’s big screen premiere this December.