After almost 10 years, Ghost Recon: Wildlands—of all games—is getting a brand-new free mission. But that’s just the beginning.
I’m really glad Ghost Recon isn’t ending like this—with a sad whimper. There’s been radio silence around the franchise for years; most recently, Ubisoft unveiled the then-brand-new Free2Play shooter Ghost Recon Frontline in October 2021—only to scrap it a few months later. The community’s tears probably could’ve fit in a Petri dish.
But for things to stay on hold for so long after that? Please, no!
And now, finally, there’s a loud sign of life. To mark the 25th anniversary of the Ghost Recon brand, Ubisoft is not only celebrating the series’ history in a major livestream but also announcing a ton of news. And that makes me very, very happy.
What’s new with Ghost Recon?
First, a quick rundown of the announcements:
- A new Ghost Recon is officially in development. You can sign up for closed-door playtests.
- After nearly ten years, Ghost Recon: Wildlands is getting a new,free story mission! In “Last Rites,” you’ll hunt down the new villain, La Llorona.
- Wildlands is getting a major update that lets you play in4K and 60 FPSon all current-gen consoles, including the Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
- ThePredator eventfrom Wildlands—the one that wiped out our entire squad back then—is returning. So you can take revenge on the terrifying alien in the Bolivian jungle.
- Allcosmetic upgrades, including those that were previously time-limited, can now be activated for free in Wildlands. There’s also new clothing to celebrate the anniversary.
- The game is also gettingtons of customization features: You can now adjust the time of day, weather, and all possible difficulty levels with greater precision than ever before. Even more elements can be disabled in the HUD, such as the glow of interactive objects or the trajectory of grenades.
- Ghost Recon: Breakpointis getting a new cosmetic bundle.
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is being given away for a week, the pretty cool predecessor to Wildlands. To activate the game, you’ll need to simply add it to your Ubisoft Connect account. You can then keep the game permanently.
All the new features are live now, so you can start downloading if you want to dive back into the open world of Wildlands (or Breakpoint) with some friends. And I think it’s great that Ubisoft is taking this step, even though nobody asked for it.
Let Your Open Worlds Live
We see all too often that digitization leads to the death of games—as “Stop Killing Games” would say—but Ubisoft also demonstrates the opposite here and there. For example, a few years ago with *Assassin’s Creed Odyssey*, which suddenly received new content in 2021—two years after its release—to promote *Assassin’s Creed Valhalla*. The same thing happened in 2023 for the launch of its sequel, *Mirage*: Suddenly, I can go on adventures in *Valhalla*—which was three years old at the time—with Basim’s mentor, Roshan.
And now: *Wildlands*. We live in a technological era where game worlds (especially those of major productions) can still hold their own even ten years later. It’s actually far too bad to let them die a quiet death just a few months after release. At the same time, I’m not a fan of artificially stretching out open-world campaigns with all sorts of service-based fluff.
But what about a middle ground? New story missions or activities that keep a cool game world alive even years later? I’d love that! Even today, new YouTube videos still pop up in my feed every week, where aficionados celebrate “tactical gameplay” in Bolivia or Auroa, because Wildlands and Breakpoint are still unique despite all their problems. Only there can I live out my modern military fantasy in an open world without immediately having to slip into the hardcore boots of a game like Arma.
There’s certainly a lot to criticize about Ubisoft, but there’s one virtue they consistently demonstrate: their support for their long-standing hardcore communities. For Honor is celebrating its eleventh year of content, Rainbow Six will never die anyway, and even Skull and Bones is still getting fresh content. And the fact that Wildlands is also getting new free story missions isn’t just a great signal to the fans—in my opinion, it should set a precedent.
What do you think?
