Ubisoft is cleaning house. As reported by VGC (via a financial report), both Ghost Recon Frontline and Splinter Cell VR — plus two other unannounced games — have been canceled. For those who don’t recall, Ghost Recon Frontline was set to be a battle royale spin-off of the aged franchise. Its announcement went very, very poorly. Due to a “changing financial environment,” neither game will see the light of day.
Of course, it would also be fair to say Ubisoft didn’t want to continue working on games with such negative feedback. Ghost Recon Frontline was likely ahead of its sibling to get canceled. When the Ubisoft Original (TM) battle royale was announced, fans of the series went up in arms. Before YouTube changed its voting system, the game’s first trailer accrued more than 17,000 dislikes. Splinter Cell VR, on the other hand, was announced two years ago as an Oculus exclusive. Fans who have been without a mainline Splinter Cell game for some years weren’t happy.
Why Splinter Cell VR and Frontline were canceled is a bit of a mystery. According to the report, Ubisoft wasn’t all that keen to shed any light. Alongside the news, Ubisoft also stated that there were two other unannounced games in the works, but they’ve also hit the slab.
Here and gone
Splinter Cell VR getting canceled is more of a surprise compared to Ghost Recon Frontline. The game, under development by Ubisoft’s Red Storm studio, hasn’t seen many updates since its announcement. One would assume the team was happily working away. Frontline, however, doesn’t come as a shock. Following the wave of backlash, Ubisoft indefinitely delayed a Closed Test scheduled for the game. It was looking bad for Frontline from the very start.
Thankfully, we still have a Splinter Cell game in development. Ubisoft has yet to cancel the Splinter Cell remake, which the company announced in December.
In other news, Ubisoft has delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora until fiscal year 2023.
Update: This post has been updated for clarification.
