Ubisoft says it's impossible to make a battle royale mode for Ghost Recon Wildlands right now

Ghost Recon Wildlands' tactical shooting seems like an ideal home for a battle royale mode, and we put it on our list of games that could replicate the success of PUBG and Fortnite with the right changes. But Ubisoft put any such hopes to bed this week by saying that building a battle royale mode in the game would be too large a technical challenge.

Responding to a fan on Twitter, it said that it "understand[s] the allure" of the battle royale genre, and that it "may seem like a natural direction for Ghost War", the game's PvP game mode that was introduced in October last year. But it would "involve changes in the game structure...that are simply impossible to undertake right now."

We understand the allure of the Battle Royale game mode and while it may seem like a natural direction for Ghost War. However, it would involve changes in the game structure and technical challenges that are simply impossible to undertake right now.April 4, 2018

While "right now" does leave the door ajar for a battle royale mode in future, I think it's safe to assume that it's not going to happen. It's a shame, really.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.