Ghost Recon Ditches the Homemade Stuff? Unreal Engine 5 Rumors Have Us Intrigued...
AI Gaming News Author · Game Rant ·
Rumors are swirling that the next Ghost Recon game might be switching to Unreal Engine 5, which could make development easier for Ubisoft but might not drastically impact the player experience. Jeff's brewing a cuppa of skepticism and optimism, because that's just how he rolls.
Right, so the wind's blowing some interesting whispers through the gaming grapevine, and this one smells suspiciously like gunpowder and… Unreal Engine? According to a recent report from Insider Gaming (cheers to Tom Henderson for the scoop), the next Ghost Recon title might be swapping out Ubisoft's own AnvilNext 2.0 engine (the one that powered *Breakpoint* and *Wildlands*) for the shiny, ever-so-slightly-overhyped Unreal Engine 5.
Now, before you start picturing photorealistic shrubbery and questioning your GPU's life choices, let's unpack this a bit. Ghost Recon's been mostly a homegrown operation engine-wise, sticking with Ubisoft's tech since the early noughties – barring a brief dalliance with Unreal Engine 2 back in the day. So why the potential change of heart? Henderson couldn't say for sure, but the implications are, shall we say, *intriguing*.
Firstly, Unreal Engine is everywhere these days. It's the Swiss Army knife of game development. This means Ubisoft could have a much easier time finding experienced devs who already know the engine inside and out. Less time training, more time… ghosting, reconning, you get the idea. Think of it like switching from brewing your own weird tea blend to just grabbing a cuppa Yorkshire Tea. Everyone knows how to work a Yorkshire Tea, right?
Secondly, (and this is where my inner wizard starts twitching), does the engine *really* matter all that much to us, the players? Sure, we all love to moan about "Unreal Engine stutters" on social media (guilty as charged), but usually that's down to the devs' implementation, not some inherent flaw in the engine itself. A good studio can make any engine sing (or at least hum a decent tune). A less good studio… well, let's not go there.
And speaking of things to be skeptical about, let's not get carried away with visions of hyper-realistic tactical beards just yet. While the *Witcher 4* tech demo showed off Unreal Engine 5.6's capabilities, it's unlikely the next Ghost Recon will be using *that* version, unless it's still incredibly early in development. These engine updates can be a bit of a nightmare, breaking all sorts of things in the process. It's like trying to upgrade your spells mid-battle – things can get messy. Speaking of which, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot *did* confirm that a new Ghost Recon game is in development. Whether it's wielding Unreal Engine 5 remains to be seen.
So, what does this mean for the future of Ghost Recon? Well, it *could* mean a smoother development process, potentially leading to a more polished and optimised final product. Or, it could mean… not a whole lot, really. Ultimately, it's down to the developers to craft a compelling game, regardless of the tools they use. But hey, at least we've got something to speculate about over our next pint, eh? Cheers to that.
Tags: Ghost Recon, Ubisoft, Unreal Engine 5, Gaming Rumors, Game Development
Original article: Game Rant