Free-to-play Ghost Recon Online is “business design research” for Ubisoft

“The times”, said Bob Dylan, “they are a-changin’.”

“Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes,” said David Bowie.

“A change is as good as a holiday,” said somebody else who was never credited for it, but when you think about it, a holiday is probably still better.

The point is, everything’s changing, including the game industry. Now it’s all about free-to-games.

“We need to learn how it works: how to make free-to-play successful,” Ubisoft creative director Jean-Marc Geoffrey told Eurogamer. The company is prepping to launch its first freemium title, Ghost Recon Online.”

“We don’t know how the future will pan out, the business is changing. It’s business design research,” he said about the project.

The game will go live shortly after the release of the premium title Ghost Recon Future Soldier in May as part of Ubisoft’s plan to “widen the brand, to eat up more of the market,” Geoffrey explained.

“The experiences are different,” Ubisoft Red Storm creative director Tommy Jacob added. “Ghost Recon Online is free-to-play and has things like the exo-skeleton and the gameplay systems that Future Soldier had before it refocused itself two years ago. It’s still a cover shooter and still objective-based, but there are little different nuances.”