Originally planned for release in the 2021-2022 window, Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, conceived as a free-to-play spinoff of the post-apocalyptic shooter series, has been canceled by Ubisoft.
During Wednesday’s earnings call, Ubisoft revealed that resources that had been devoted to the game were being “redeployed resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
Speaking to IGN, Ubisoft said “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.”
The game, which was in development by Red Storm Entertainment, has been delayed since the initial launch with no news or information about it in some time. There was a false alarm caused by the game getting a rating in Taiwan, but this seems to have been in error.
Red Storm, based in North Carolina, is a development studio founded by Tom Clancy himself to make video game adaptations of his military thrillers. Ubisoft acquired the studio in 2000 and most recently it contributed to development on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (2019).
In the last two years, Ubisoft has canceled eight games at least in an effort to cut costs. According to the earnings call, they have also reduced their staff numbers by over 1,700 in the last 18 months, a shocking figure. Several studio closures have contributed to this high figure.
How have people responded to the cancellation of The Division Heartland?
Response from gamers has been mixed at best. “Man, I was looking forward to this. Having a quick pick up F2P title that stripped a lot of the deep gear grind of The Division,” said one user on Reddit. However, several more expressed relief that more resources could now be dedicated to The Division 3, which was announced in September 2023, rather than split between the two games.
People are a lot more emotive about the announcement that the next Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, will require a permanent internet connection to play.
Featured image credit: Ubisoft
