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And now from bad, to worse, to literally as bad as it gets: Ubisoft stock crashed (again) and is now not only lower than it was over twenty years ago after the IPO dip when the company went public, it's now lower than it has ever been (Yahoo Finance) (hit the "All" button to see the entire stock history) erasing all the company's gains, and even making ZeroHedge headlines. With its massive debt, repeated government and private bailouts, a massive private bailout from Tencent -- and the company still can't even pay the bills, it should be no surprise the Ubisoft has lost all investor confidence. If a family member burned through money in the manner it was done here; they'd not only be unemployable, they'd be in prison and disowned. If Red Storm had run their studio like this, there never would have been a Ghost Recon. In fact, the only other entity that gets away with this scale of dysfunction and malfeasance for this long, is government... The silver lining has to be we're that much closer to someone else owning Ghost Recon IP or even better the Tom Clancy IP in entire, and it seems very unlikely whoever that may be could do as poorly with literally every example that can be made of what not to do. As a fan of primarily Red Storm and all the ground they broke in tactical realism game design; I'm sad this has gone the way it has, but it will be a relief when the page finally turns -- if only Ubisoft had just remained a Publisher... Here's to hoping we may again have 'The best of the best!'... "Maybe the time is not, quite yet... But those are the worlds promising untold opportunities... Beckon..." -Carl Sagan

And the news just goes from bad to worse -- it does look like the Ubisoft is truly circling the drain... Loyal Fans, a gigantic market, amazing IP, and enormously talented Studios burned to the ground for over a decade... This last point -- what Ubisoft did to its Studios especially demonstrates just how completely the Publisher burned its bridges. A Publisher that micro-manages Studio development where previously enormously successful and popular IP was made without that oversight and micro-management, and it gets so bad key and even lead talent that built those Studios and their IP leave, after repeated demonstrations of poorer and poorer sales, bad reviews etc. -- is no different than if a Print Press Publisher were to micro-manage what an Author writes... Can anyone imagine if Penguin, Random House, or Sphere were to have told Tom Clancy, "The story line is okay, but we want all the main characters to be trans circus clowns and drag queens...and we don't want any realistic depictions of conflict, we want cartoon depictions that are humorous, and we'll have our Ghostwriter do it for you..."? And they did this after Tom Clancy and written his third best seller... Would that work? This is not to suggest there isn't a valid market for whatever it is a Publisher might want, or in the case of Ubisoft prefer and to develop alternative IP that targets that market or idea -- but to to so completely subvert and obviate Studios and talent that have demonstrated they understand their genre, market and audience as well as Red Storm and Massive Entertainment did (and studios like Grin and Crytek that worked so hard and were just getting there) -- is beyond appalling... That Ubisoft did this, relentlessly, across its entire Studios portfolio & IP stack, in the face of decades of enormous Fan & Review criticism, tanking sales, -- shouldn't make any of the current outcomes a shock or surprise to anyone. Hopefully, the IP will be acquired by a party or parties that understand the enormous squandered potential, and/or will put someone in charge that does as there remains an enormous hole in the Tactical Realism and Stealth gaming market that hasn't been filled filled with competent 'AAA' titles for over a decade...

Glad to see things on GRN back up and the forums cleaned of all the weird spam! But who could ever have seen this coming?! Seriously, if you think about it, the only iterations of the Ghost Recon franchise that were any good happened when a Developer Studio were allowed more control over the development and the marketing reflected that -- rather than Ubisoft's top down design churn with all the prevarication about what they were offering. Whatever happens in a buyout can't be any worse than the track Ubisoft has been on for over a decade -- and could be a lot better,Ghost Recon had great IP that still has an enormous appeal but a now scattered following, that if taken to the task of delivering what was once offered in titles like OGR, GRAW, Future Soldier, and Wildlands could be an epic win for the franchise. A closer look at the current arrangement with Tencent shows how intransigent and dysfunctional Ubisoft management is, and how clearly they're circling the drain. Any resolution and clarity about the future of the IP would be better than where things are now...