'Ghost Recon: Future Soldier' slips to an early 2011 release

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Easing congestion in a busy end-of-year release window and affording a better opportunity for their game to get noticed, Ubisoft's anticipated revitalization of the Ghost Recon franchise has now been pushed back to early 2011.

Though the series debuted back in 2001, it was Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter that burst onto the Xbox 360 in 2006 and helped ignite interest in the console's online gaming capabilities, before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare swept the board in 2007 and established the Call of Duty franchise as the military shooter of choice for many fans of the genre, overshadowing Advanced Warfighter's sequel quite considerably.

Now that the dominant genre is in a state of flux, with changes afoot for the Call of Duty series and Battlefield Bad Company 2 emerging as a strong challenger, recent intimations from Ubisoft regarding Ghost Recon's comeback were well received.

The recent Ubisoft title Splinter Cell: Conviction even came with a code allowing owners access to the first public trials of Future Soldier's multiplayer mode.

However, with the Medal of Honor series' resurrection scheduled for October 12 and Call of Duty: Black Ops targeting a November 9 release, Ubisoft have elected to move their baby's debut to sometime between January and March 2011 when they hope that potential punters will be able to give it their full attention.