14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Ubisoft has announced that it will not be launching a PC version of its upcoming shooter Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, focusing resources instead on the development of the free-to-play Ghost Recon Online.
Sébastien Arnoult, who is the producer for Ghost Recon Online, told PC Gamer that, “When we started Ghost Recon Online we were thinking about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier; having something ported in the classical way without any deep development, because we know that 95% of our consumers will pirate the game.”
He added, “So we said okay, we have to change our mind. We have to adapt, we have to embrace this instead of pushing it away. That’s the main reflection behind Ghost Recon Online and the choice we’ve made to go in this direction.”
Ubisoft has tried to claim that it never officially announced that Future Soldier will be released on the PC but the game has a dedicated forum for the platform and the initial announcement also mentions it.
The developer says that he feels there are significant differences between how console releases work and how the PC allows for development of titles that are multiplayer oriented.
Arnoult believes that all those players who would have pirated Ghost Recon: Future Soldier can be persuaded to try out the online game because there’s no barrier to entry and most of the content is being offered for free to those interested.
Ghost Recon Online is now in beta and a launch is planned for the first half of 2012 and Ubisoft has not yet announced how it plans to get money from the game.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be out on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 during March 2012.
The game will make the player of a new Ghost team which needs to take on a nationalistic Russian movement which is aiming to start a war in Asia.