What used to be one of Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy franchise megahits, The Division, has now quietly announced its second sequel, The Division 3. The fate of The Division as a franchise has been unknown outside of a survival multiplayer shooter, Heartland, which still does not have a fixed release date. And it seemed like that would be the way forward for The Division outside of an actual sequel.
That is not the case. In a press release and a single tweet from the Massive account, Ubisoft has announced that Julian Gerighty is returning to the universe and is currently building a team to start work on The Division 3.
Gerighty has been directing Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws game, but it’s unclear if he’s simply finished with that role with the game out in 2024, or if he’s leaving midway through to head The Division 3, like he did The Division 2.
The original Division broke records for Ubisoft, selling more copies in 24 hours than any game in the company’s history. It was actually one of the biggest launches for a brand new IP…ever. The Division 2, despite increasing in quality in really every way, was viewed in the long term as at least something of a disappointment compared to the original to Ubisoft. However, of all the games that have ever tried to challenge Destiny for its live service looter throne, I’d argue that The Division franchise got the closest, even if it never quite reached that level. My hundreds of hours of playtime across both 1 and 2 are a testament to that.
The Division 2 has had a weird live service era, at first delivering solid seasons, then eventually doing season re-runs as support faded. Then it went back to doing new content again for a spell. I have no idea what may have changed to have Ubisoft greenlight The Division 3, but I am certainly more excited for that prospect than I am the MIA Heartland, which continues to exist in testing, but it’s unclear when it will actually land as a mainstream release. It was announced all the way back in 2021, but it’s taken forever to arrive as a wide release. I doubt it’s scrapped, but it’s a pretty odd journey for the game. I now have to wonder if it may end up merged with TD3 itself.
If not, presumably, The Division 3 will follow the format of the last two games, especially The Division 2, which boasted a quality campaign, an interesting spin on endgame, and then competitive PvP and ongoing seasonal content. While live service looters have come and gone, it’s nice to see that Ubisoft hasn’t given up on The Division, easily one of the best in the genre, and not one I would consider a failure, no matter if TD2 wasn’t the insane blockbuster Ubisoft hoped it would be.
I have no clue why Ubisoft would announce this in a press release instead of any other format, but I hope it gets more support than that going forward.
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