Ubisoft have confirmed that Massive Entertainment will continue to develop content for The Division 2 through 2021 and 2022 in their latest financial conference call. The statement that “more Division content” is on the way comes from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot who asserted that Massive would be able to handle the workload, despite also leading development on Ubisoft’s recently announced Star Wars video game, as well as the long-in-development Avatar Project. While the scope and scale of the planned content is unknown, as we come toward the end of the second year of the game’s life, this is encouraging news for fans of the series.
To handle further development of The Division as a franchise, Ubisoft say that Massive is a large studio in its own right, but that they are also coordinating with other teams to spread out the workload. With the announcement of a new Star Wars project in development at Massive, and the previous Avatar game, there were understandable questions over the future of the studio’s home-grown looter shooter series. The studio now leads development on three titles.
However, it’s worth remembering that Ubisoft games are almost never developed and supported by a single studio. The Division 2 was developed with additional work by Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Leamington, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Sofia. Red Storm in particular had a significant role to play, as they took over support of the original game so that Massive could focus on The Division 2.
Again, what’s left unclear is how significant this upcoming content will be. Following on from the season pass of content through the game’s first year, The Division 2 received a significant expansion in March 2020 with Warlords of New York, which added lower Manhattan into the game, returning to the stomping grounds of the original game. Will we see similarly grand expansions in future? We’ll just have to wait and see.
At the time of its release, we said in our The Division 2: Warlords of New York review:
Warlords of New York is a welcome addition to The Division 2 and it probably marks the most fun I’ve had with the series to date. While some content falls a little flat, each one of the special encounters is a manic and explosive experience that will bring you to the edge of your seat. The quality of life changes, including the refined loot systems, also breathe life back into one of last year’s more enjoyable looter-shooter titles.
The future might still feel uncertain, but for the time being, The Division 2 has been given a shot in the arm with Title Update 12.1 adding support for the new consoles and bringing 4K 60fps gaming to the table. Though a mid-season update for the game, there’s also the Resident Evil 25th Anniversary cross-over event and a major reduction in the cost of Optimization Station.
