Ubisoft knew for sure: The Division Heartland had to be the one. The game was originally supposed to be released in 2021 or 2022, but was a long time coming. And it will continue to do so.
We can wait until we weigh an ounce (which, in my case, is a while away), but The Division Heartland will not be released. Ubisoft announced this during its quarterly earnings announcement.
Ubisoft has been trying to streamline its operations and cut costs for some time. This puts The Division Heartland in line with the mysterious Project Q, Immortals Fenyx Rising 2 and three unannounced titles that were also canceled.
Ubisoft’s new plans
Ubisoft’s new direction is a tough one. In the past 18 months, 1,700 employees have had to say goodbye to the developer. At the end of March, Ubisoft still had just over 19,000 employees worldwide.
It has also impacted its games, which Ubisoft says it was perhaps a little too eager to do. It was working on too many titles at once to deliver quality. So during the quarterly earnings announcement, the company announced that it was still focusing on two types of games: open-world and live-service.
So Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, XdeFiant and Rainbow Six Mobile are titles we can still consider in the coming months. But for the freely available The Division Heartland, it’s game over.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows announced though
Ubisoft has not only officially canceled Heartland, but also announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The game is set in Japan, gives players the chance to play with two characters and will be released on Nov. 15 for consoles and PC.
What exactly was The Division Heartland?
The Division Heartland, that is. The game would be part of The Division series, but would be a game in its own right. One that would be free to play for those with a PlayStation, Xbox or PC.
Development of the game was in the hands of Red Storm Entertainment. The studio, based in North Carolina, was co-founded by none other than writer Tom Clancy. Remarkably, it did remain notably quiet from that camp after Heartland’s announcement.
Several test versions, an open beta and even a recent review suggested that the game’s arrival could not be very long in coming. Funny…
