In a move that will undoubtedly not be popular with some of its players, Ubisoft has announced the first downloadable map pack for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - about two weeks before the game has hit shelves.
Arctic Strike is the name of the map pack, and it is set to launch on July 3rd. The DLC extends the multiplayer experience in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier pretty expansively, including "additional multiplayer maps, a new multiplayer mode, a new Guerrilla Mode co-op map and six additional weapons." This kind of DLC is most commonly found in a game like Battlefield, where DICE is known to release not just maps, but a full complement of weapons and vehicles as well.
Now, some of our readers may be thinking it odd that Ubisoft has announced DLC before the game has even launched. Why don't they just ship it on the disc? The way we view the situation is that Ubisoft isn't going to ship out Ghost Recon: Future Soldier a few days before launch. This game has to have gone gold - meaning that it is finished and initial development has stopped - quite a ways in advance, so that they can facilitate getting copies made up and bundled into cases for three separate platforms.
There is a very good chance that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is done already, and being pressed and bundled for shipment as we speak. With that being the case, how can Ubisoft put more content on that disc? The answer is that they can't. So, instead of sitting back and patting themselves on the back, Ubisoft seems to have assigned studios to start working on expanding the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier experience. Planning for the future, if you will.
On top of that, Ubisoft has forgone the typical 1200 MSP/$14.99 price that is commonly assigned to map packs and is offering the content for 800 MSP/$9.99 instead. Ubisoft is offering more content, for less money than is typical? We'll take it!
What are your thoughts? We'd love to hear them over in the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier forums - let us know!
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