The Ghost Recon franchise has been absent for nearly 7 years now, and based on new information it doesn’t look like the next game – which is allegedly titled Project OVR internally – is going to be coming out any time soon.

Insider Gaming has the inside track on all things Ubisoft. Indeed, it sometimes seems like site has more knowledge of what’s happening inside Ubisoft than Ubisoft’s own leadership does. Over the past few months, Insider Gaming has reported that the next Ghost Recon has been struggling thanks to poor leadership, unrealistic deadlines and a lack of planning.

Now, Insider Gaming has more to share. According to what their sources told them, Ghost Recon failed it’s alpha test earlier this Spring. The sources also claimed this was not a surprise, describing it as being in “terrible state” and that it “isn’t stable at all.”

Because of this, the scope of the game “has been cut and greatly reduced, with many features stripped from the project”.

The game is scheduled to enter a beta test sometime in November. Insider Gaming’s sources are worried this tight deadline might lead to heavy crunch to get the game ready.

The Ghost Recon IP currently falls under the jurisdiction of Creative House 2, one of Ubisoft’s multiple new spin-off companies. Other brands under its control include Splinter Cell and The Division.

To try to stop the bleeding, Ubisoft recently restructured itself around five “Creative Houses,” each focused on different types of games. Vantage Studios, the highest-profile of the bunch and the one backed by Tencent, now looks after Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

On paper, that makes sense. In practice, it also means Ghost Recon is sitting in one of the most awkward parts of Ubisoft’s entire business. The Tom Clancy label used to be one of the company’s crown jewels, but these days it feels more like a dusty box of old trophies that Ubisoft occasionally looks at before deciding to make another live-service experiment.

The company’s wider situation is not exactly rosy, either. As part of its restructuring, Ubisoft cancelled six games, delayed seven more and closed multiple studios. The most notable casualty was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a game that had already become a running joke thanks to years of delays, restarts and radio silence before Ubisoft finally put it out of its misery.

And that is the problem hanging over Project OVR. Ubisoft is trying to cut costs, narrow its focus and somehow restore confidence at the exact same time that one of its supposedly important franchises is reportedly unstable, reduced in scope and heading toward a tight beta deadline.

Maybe Project OVR can still turn itself around. Games have recovered from rough internal builds before, and Ghost Recon is still a name with enough weight behind it to matter. But right now, this sounds less like the triumphant return of a major Ubisoft franchise and more like another example of a company still trying to work out what the hell it actually wants to be.