In a bid to redeploy "resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six", Ubisoft has today announced the cancellation of its free-to-play spin-off of The Division series, The Division Heartland. The move arrives as part of a bigger restructuring within the French publisher that's geared towards focusing on fewer but bigger games, such as the newly revealed Assassin's Creed Shadows.
In a statement, Ubisoft explained: "After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately. Our priority now is to support the talented team members at our Red Storm Entertainment studio, who will be transitioning to new projects within our company, including XDefiant and Rainbow Six."
After what has been a bumpy beta and pre-launch process, XDefiant launches for PS5 and PS4 on 21st May 2024 while Rainbow Six: Siege continues to receive significant support many years after release. The Division 3 is confirmed to be a project in the works at Massive Entertainment, but it first has to see Star Wars Outlaws out of the door in late August and then develop its DLC.
Upon its announcement, The Division series producer Julian Gerighty added: "It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to continue to build incredible and unforgettable experiences in this amazing world with the most talented teams around the world, and I can’t wait for what’s next."
Have you been looking forward to The Division Heartland? Mourn its death in the comments below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 20
So that XDefiant can get more resources?!? Well that's going to be a terrible decision down the road when it bombs! I was looking forward to more Division content...
That’s a shame. I love both Division games, I was optimistic about Heartland. Xdefiant is still an awful, awful name.
Was this meant to be another live-service game? Maybe I’m just ignorant but I’ve never heard of it.
Not too disappointed to see an FTP game hit the dirt, but I like Division so I'm eagerly anticipating D3.
Haven't played Siege in years, used to be fun, but it's become one of the most toxic online communities I've ever encountered. And I play quite a bit of CoD. Curious about XDefiant, I'll definitely try it out.
That’s a very Ubisoft move. Get rid of the promising games and go all in on something that other games are doing best at. I was genuinely interested in playing this
I can manage to deal with this particular loss.
Atleast we're still getting Resurgance, right?...... right? 🥲
A little gutted but as long as Division 3 is still going I am happy enough.
It still puzzles me why they'd throw away a decent established IP for this new garbage that clearly nobody is going to play.
@MadCaptain2207 Yes, basically a free to play version of the current division games but with open world PvEvP
Was really looking forward to this one. Sunk 100's of hours in the first 2 games. Hopefully 3 isn't too too far off.
XDefiant is such a baaaaaad baaaaaad name oh man.
Ahh Division.
Always felt those games had some truly great city environments begging for much better games than the ones that took place on them.
The Division 2 was all but dead at one point maybe this will get resurrected as well once Xdefiant inevitably fails.
As a huge fan of The Division this is disheartening. Ubisoft puts out a lot of crap so it’s sad that they didn’t at least give this a fighting chance.
@BusyOlf @Anke my sentiments exactly!
I would have thought xdefiant would have been the one to be dropped rather than an established ip that has a clear fan base. I would have played more division, but I won't play another fps online shooter.
Bad news, bad news indeed…
By all means, divert resources from a brand that is known to sell and put them toward a game nobody asked for whatsoever that will be in direct contention with thew biggest name(s) in FPS gaming.
Make it make sense, Ubisoft.
Side note: I've always felt Ubisoft had a unique opportunity with The Division. They could have made a pretty damn great battle royale/extraction shooter (the Dark Zone is arguably one of the first extraction shooters conceptually) within the universe.
Build out a giant, unique city (as in one not seen yet... like Baltimore, LA, or Vegas). Stuff it with all the great detail Snowdrop is capable of (no one has ever argued Division games look bad) and have your player character be a complete random person. Then the overall concept would be it "tells the story" of everyday survivors of the outbreak as they fight to survive in the new world. It'd be like every match is sort of in the immediate aftermath of the world collapsing and you are someone merely trying to survive it and escape before it's too late.
You start with nothing and fight to scavenge guns and whatever else. But then you can also find Division (and other enemy faction) loot caches, just like you'd find guns in chests in Fortnite or whatever, that house higher quality gear. But given the IP, THAT'S also how you find your Division tech like the sentries and rolling bombs and whatnot.
So each match, you sort of gear up and have to make an effective kit like you would over the broader course of a Division game. Have government helicopters around the map that will extract you and "save you" from the city before it's overtaken or destroyed (whatever the "story" calls for).
Throw in roaming bands of the gangs they already have (in order to steal their loot), and Division agents you can hire to fight alongside you (like Fortnite has characters who can help), and you've got the makings of a pretty damn decent multiplayer experience. Support it with cosmetics you could earn through XP or some currency so you can create a unique-looking survivor and WHAM. That's a fun time imo.
But Ubisoft doesn't create. They just copy (often poorly). So we never got THAT game. We got AC #24849873, Skull & Bones, and Hyper Scape.
If it's to give more resources for other games, then why can't they just put the division on pause, and resume to it in the future when they have the spare resources? Wouldn't it be better than cancelling it?
Sad. The division 1/2 are in my top favourite games.
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