In a switch from the previous Ghost Recon game, Breakpoint will require the player to always be online.
Ghost Recon Wildlands came out in 2017 with a few twists to the franchise. Wildlands was the first Ghost Recon game to feature an open sandbox to explore, which was a big departure from previous games. It was also unique among games from the era in that it didn’t require the player to have an internet connection to play. You could play Wildlands completel🐎y offline as a solo player if you so ch♚ose.
Obviously, this came with some limitations. You couldn’t play with anyone else if you were always offline, and it also meant that you couldn’t get game updates or download and DLC or anything else (presumably this fictional Wildlands player is gaming in a cave in the middle of nowhere). It was also somewhat harder to play certain sections of the game relying entirely on your AI partners rather than a real human being, but Wildlands was still v🍃ery much doable as a sin🎶gle-player experience.
Breakpoint, the sequel to Wildlands, will also still be doable as a solo player, but Ubisoft has decided that being able to play offline just isn’t what gamers want anymore. Or at least, it’s not what Ubisoft wants. That’s why Breakpoint will need to be always online to play.
Be🍌ing on𒈔line only will be a deal breaker for certain gamers that just don’t have a great internet connection, but it’s a calculated decision on Ubisoft’s part. For one, it makes it far easier to prevent anyone from pirating Breakpoint, and for another, it also makes it far easier to sell skins, DLC, and other microtransactions to players.
It also allows Ubisoft to switch to a single character progression model for both PvE and PvP gameplay. This simplifies things and gives Ubisoft a good reason to ensure Breakpoint stays an online only game.
Wildlands players were not happy to hear Breakpoint moving to online only, with many saying they won’t pick up the game as a result. Ubisoft must have done the math and decided the players they lose doesn’t outweigh the benefits. We’ll see when Breakpoint hit♐s Xbox One, PS4, and PC (via the Epic and Ubisoft stores) this October 4th.