Rumor: New Ghost Recon Game May Be Switching Game Engines

It’s said that the upcoming Ghost Recon game is expected to employ the Unreal Engine, signifying a significant technological change for the series as it breaks away from its longstanding practice of utilizing Ubisoft’s proprietary technology.

As a devoted fan of the Ghost Recon series, I’ve noticed that since its debut in the early 2000s, it has primarily depended on its own engines for development. However, during the sixth console generation, some versions of Ghost Recon 2 and GR Advanced Warfighter made use of modified Unreal Engine 2. The PC adaptations of these games, along with all subsequent releases, continued to employ Ubisoft’s proprietary engines. For instance, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and GR Phantoms in the first half of the 2010s were built using the LEAD Engine, while Ghost Recon Wildlands from 2017 utilized AnvilNext 2.0, initially designed for Assassin’s Creed. The latest addition to the franchise, Ghost Recon Breakpoint (released in 2019), was also created using AnvilNext 2.0.

According to a recent report by Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming, it’s rumored that the next installment in the ongoing franchise is planning to return to using the Unreal Engine. During his latest podcast episode, Henderson hinted that the sequel to Ghost Recon Breakpoint will be powered by this engine. Although he didn’t disclose the reasons behind Ubisoft’s supposed decision to switch from their own technology, Henderson did confirm that the upcoming game will utilize Unreal Engine 5.

New Ghost Recon May Not Use the Very Latest Unreal Engine Version

In June of 2025, the most recent update to Unreal Engine 5, version 5.6, was released. This is the same platform that CD Projekt Red utilized for their Witcher 4 tech demo, which caused a stir online during the late spring months. Nevertheless, unless the upcoming Ghost Recon game is currently in its early stages of development, it’s unlikely to leverage anything close to the latest version of this engine. Although Epic provides a migration tool and dedicates substantial resources towards backward compatibility, each new iteration of their popular engine brings about alterations to rendering, animation systems, plugins, physics, and asset management. Major upgrades, like moving from 5.0 to 5.1, can potentially disrupt everything from shaders and custom code to third-party tools, especially in large projects with intricate pipelines, which a AAA Ghost Recon game typically has.

Why Ghost Recon’s Reported Shift to Unreal Engine Matters

During a shareholder meeting on July 10th, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, revealed that they are working on a new installment in the Ghost Recon series. If this project does indeed choose to utilize Epic’s Unreal Engine, it would make hiring skilled developers more straightforward. Since Unreal Engine is commonly used and well-known, Ubisoft could potentially recruit experienced professionals more quickly, as they wouldn’t need to invest time in training them on proprietary technology.

To a player, the type of engine used in the upcoming Ghost Recon game may not have a significant impact. Often, complaints about performance issues on social media, such as “Unreal Engine 5 stutters,” are more related to how the developers have utilized the engine rather than any inherent flaws within the tool itself.

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2025-07-25 21:04