Scott Mitchell

Merry Christmas Rocky, staff and forum dwellers...I'm still around keeping the FB and Twitter going but as you all know...there hasn't been any new news...so until things pick up...it's been rather difficult to make it "exciting". Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and got lots of new toys. Cheers!

Article over at Joystiq...

Sounds like many of the old salty veterans from around here wrote this.

I don't know how you feel about walk thrus...but gr.net has plenty of them for GR and the expansion packs. http://www.ghostrecon.net/html/recon.htm#wt

It was said on Twitter...and I'm searching for it...but Twitter is only letting me go back as far as the beginning of June and this was passed awhile ago. This has always been one of the most frequently asked questions... I'll certainly keep looking for it...not that it will change any of this. But however we wordplay the issue...it was grossly misleading. EDIT - I'll edit my former post because I certainly don't want to misrepresent the issue without concrete proof...but it doesn't change the point of any of this.

While I’m not nearly as vocal or critical of Ubisoft as others here are, I might be over this issue. I beat a $60 game in 3 days…I haven’t touched it since but held on to it just to have access to the GRFS beta and now the game isn’t even worth half that and probably won’t even be needed. This reeks of shady and deceitful marketing tactics. Are we really going to argue and justify this practice by wordplaying it to death. Offering an “exclusive” perk for doing something, and then turning around and offering that same benefit for doing something else devalues the effort of the first and those who did what was asked. It isn’t nearly as much about the money as it is the principle, and the customers are always the one who seem to pay for it. It almost seems like now that the beta and game release have been pushed back, this is a way to lure in more people by offering up another carrot. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this “exclusive” map will be available to all in no time, making the point of reserving the game irrelevant in the first place. In fact, I’m sure with minimal effort (like following the right people on Twitter for example) a person could easily get the exclusive map the day the game releases, whenever that might be. Clearly Ubisoft isn’t the only one that is guilty of this. Halo: ODST did this with the Halo: Reach beta too. MS turned around and gave away so many free codes that allowed random users to access Reach even before those who were standing by with their copies of ODST were able to. At least Halo was subtle about it. Ubisoft is wheeling and dealing on a game that has already got bumped once, isn't due out until next year and might even experience further delays. As far as pointing to what the website says now about beta access and how to get it…well that’s about as relevant as pointing to Amazon’s website that shows an OCT 01, 2010 release date for GRFS. Websites can and do change. Clearly I’m not naïve enough to think Ubisoft wouldn’t give away free promotional codes and what not, but to offer up another alternative as simple and insignificant as reserving GRFS as an alternative solution… That’s inexcusable.

@MeanMF - yeah...well based on some of your other posts...obviously you know what my beef is...I've been hanging on to SC Conviction just for the beta and it's value has plummeted...and I probably won't even need it now. Yeah...its a little frustrating.

Hmm...I won't say what I was originally going to post...but I'm not particularly happy with the fact that you can get the beta just by pre-ordering now...also, I don't know if this ad still applies since the news of the delay...but this ad just ran in the JUL issue of Game Informer.

Custom Ghost Recon Xbox 360 up for bid - proceeds benefit Child's Play Charity. Bid now and own a one of a kind.

Ubi Kimi hosting a few polls to gauge community feedback to the news of the GRFS delay. Read about it here.

UNCLASSIFIED FROM: Scott Mitchell, futuresoldier@ghostrecon.net TO: Undisclosed Recipients MEMORANDUM SUBJ: Polls In Response to Ghost Recon Future Soldier Delay You have to admire the fortitude and resolve of Ubi Kimi. In light of the recent news release from Ubisoft indicating the delay of Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and the subsequent update indicating the demo was also impacted by the delay, she trudges on with her Community Developer duties as the conduit between the fans and the company. In her latest round of public activity, she tackled the daunting task of addressing the issue of the delay in a couple of polls that ask: "How do you feel about the delay of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier?" My first reaction was she was out of her mind for even asking as the answer would seem obvious...but the response may surprise you. It did me, to a certain degree. The first poll was hosted at Twtpoll. To accurately characterize the poll, it's only fair to note that it was a very brief snapshot of fan based reaction. The poll ran for a rather short period of time, apparently less than 24 hours, and only had 130 votes cast. In a game that normally draws responses in the hundreds and thousands, 130 votes does seem a bit low. The second poll is being conducted over at the Ghost Recon Facebook Page. It essentially asks the same question and has similar responses. The results as of a few minutes ago look like this. Whether you participated in the polls or not, feel free to join in on the ongoing discussion in the following forum thread located here. Happy Hunting. //SIGNED// Scott Mitchell, futuresoldier@ghostrecon.net

@MeanMF - It's a good point...when I saw that SC: Conviction topped the charts for so long but then read the actual sales figures I was shocked. If I'm not mistaken, the DLC for MW2 on the Xbox 360 alone doubled all of the sales for SC:Conviction...and then the DLC came out on the Playstation 3 and outsold SC: C by double again. GRFS is still up against some heavy competition next year...almost all of the media outlets that traveled to Paris for the media event compared GRFS to Gears of War. Gears of War 3 is due to release around the same time as the revised GRFS release date. With a big name like Microsoft backing GOW3 (meaning, I'm sure there are going to be some deals made to give GOW3 a lot of media blitz) GRFS is going to be in the same position it was in with a pre-holiday release. BT Something funny I read in a different forum. For the sake of the author, I won't post their name... "Who cares if some aspects of the game are unrealistic, i would sacrifice awesomeness for realism any day of the week. Besides MW2 is one of the most realistic FPS games on the market." Oh...what a hoot!

I think E3 will show us how bad the damage really is... I mean, is it being delayed because there are too many other games being released around that time; because it's not on track to be completed by then; or a combination of the two. The press release is kind of conflicting and implies any of the above can be true. The Ghost Recon Future Soldier presentation at E3 will be very revealing...at least I think so.

@warcloud - agree! @krise - I kind of thought that too...but there were a number of games last year that delayed their release until after the holidays so as not to go up against MW2 and they went on to be huge successes. Obviously not as huge as MW2, but that one is a rare bird indeed.

Maybe this will help? http://www.ghostrecon.net/html/WT_C06.htm