May 3, 2019 Now Ubisoft has put a date on those new game teasers found in Ghost Recon Wildlands.
A few months ago, a Ghost Recon Wildlands update dropped hints that pretty much everyone took to mean a new Tom Clancy game would soon be announced. It’s taken some time, but it looks like those teasers are paying off in the very near future. Another hint has dropped in the latest update, and it points to an announcement one week from today.
The original teaser pointed to a fictional organisation called Skell Technology, and the latest – noted by YouTuber coreross – shows an invitation to an event called Skell Con, set to take place on May 9, 2019. The time for that event is set at 11:30 PDT / 14:30 EDT / 19:30 BST, so you’ll probably want to tune into Ubisoft’s usual channels around that time.
Both this and the old teaser directed people to the Skell Tech website, and the link featured on this invitation even includes a temporary ‘rating pending’ badge from the ESRB – a very likely sign of an upcoming game release separate from anything that’s already out there.
It’s not clear what exactly the new game might be – it’s possible it’ll be a new entry in an existing franchise like Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six, or it might be something entirely new. But whatever it is, it seems to center on a company called Skell Technology, which manufactures drones and robots that can be used for civilian use.
Using clues found in the game, players have worked out the login and password for Skell Tech’s website. If you head over there, you can gain access with the username “asantos” and password 10068. Entering those pops up an unlisted Ubisoft YouTube video that features Skell’s products, including drones for farming and emergency medical treatment.
If you don’t feel like logging in, here’s the video (it’ll only work in North America due to how Ubisoft manages its video uploads):
The fictional company’s founder, Jace Skell, discusses the possibilities provided by autonomous machines, which he says have been designed to “free mankind of its tedious limitations.” While the video mostly contains cheerful stock footage, there’s something distinctively ominous about it, too. The company’s motto, “A Better Future Today,” also has the sound of something a super-villain might say. There’s something rather dark about the prospect of the Skell Pollinator, which is described as a substitute for bees – handy, certainly, but only if bees have disappeared completely.
So what does that mean for a new Tom Clancy game? The danger of technology is a concept that Clancy-branded games have explored before, and the idea of a drone army gone rogue fits pretty perfectly into the world established by Ghost Recon and other series that bear the Clancy brand. Being that these hints have all showed up in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, it’s possible – likely, even – that they’re pointing to a new game in this series.
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But as coreross points out in an older video, Skell Tech touches several other series in the Clancyverse, since the company’s Easter Eggs have appeared in Ghost Recon DLC associated with both Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six Siege. So it’s entirely possible that a new game in either of those series is on the way.
Whatever the case may be, Skell Technology drones will likely figure heavily into the world – and players will most likely find themselves facing off against an army of Skell robots that have either been hijacked or purpose-built to capture and wield political power.
We’ll be interested to find out what else Ubisoft has planned for the Clancyverse in the coming year, and how Skell’s drones play into it.