A new survey shows just how bad a game Ghost Recon: Breakpoint really is.
The results are in: Breakpoint is bad. Like, really bad. Ubisoft knew that the latest Ghost Recon game was in trouble when sales failed to materialize, but they didn’t know what was wrong until they recently completed a 2-week long survey.
They could have just asked us--we gave the game 1.5 out of 5 stars for a host of problems ranging from core game mechanics to laughable dialog. And of course, numerous annoying bugs.
But no matter. If Ubisoft wants to waste their money with a survey asking the actual audience what’s wrong with their game, it’s their money to waste.
So what did they find out? The most frequently requested change to Breakpoint was its technical quality. Roughly 50% of players wanted squadmates to have wanted AI-controlled squadmates to actually do something instead of just occasionally talk, while 35% asked to remove the tiered gear system to make it more like the original Ghost Recon Wildlands. Many also asked to improve the enemy AI and update the inventory screen to show all weapons/gear at once.
A whopping 70% of players asked for more story content to be added, while 60% wanted more weapons and 50% wanted more customization options to characters and guns.
There are more, which you can read about in our previous coverage and on Ubisoft’s site. But what this survey really shows is that Ubisoft didn’t do their homework before releasing a game into the wild, and it really shows.
In most game development cycles, you have a closed alpha to make sure the core game works without setting anybody’s console/computer on fire, and after that you hold an open beta to get an idea for game mechanic balancing and other features that players might want to be added to the game. Current development cycles often skimp on the beta testing and expect to simply patch-out issues or to add content after release.
The only problem with that is if the game is so bad that nobody buys it, the company has little financial incentive to keep working on a failed game.
Still, Ubisoft has promised to stick with Breakpoint despite its poor sales and says that many of the requested fixes and tweaks will be added in early 2020.
Source: Ubisoft