Ubisoft is Making a Free-to-Play The Division Game

Today Ubisoft has announced that the company has major plans for The Division series. The Montreuil-based company isn’t just working on the highly-anticipated Netflix movie and another expansion pack for The Division 2, but also a free-to-play spin-off called The Division Heartland, a mobile game, and a novel as well; all neatly presented in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-like roadmap.

The Division Heartland is currently being developed by Red Storm Entertainment, who used to work on Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear expansion packs and co-developed classic Ghost Recon titles. The story will be completely detached from previous games with a “2021-22” release date for PC, consoles, and cloud platforms. You can sign up for a chance of getting into early tests over on the official site. The Division 2 new expansion is planned for a late 2021 release as well, packed with a brand new game mode “for the franchise.” On the mobile front, unfortunately, Ubisoft isn’t ready to reveal any details. Considering that didn’t even include a name, we can assume the project is fairly early in development.

Meanwhile, The Division Netflix film has chosen Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Skyscraper) as the director and will star Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal. Lastly, the original novel story is set after the events of The Division 2, exploring the effects of the Outbreak in different regions of the United States as agents fight to secure supply routes.

Here’s what Ubisoft EMEA executive director Alain Corre has to say about this big announcement.

While work continues on The Division 2, other Ubisoft teams have been exploring additional ways to introduce The Division to even more players. Today, we’re pleased to share that Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, a free-to-play game set in The Division universe, is in development at our studio. Having worked on Tom Clancy games since 1997, its extensive experience across numerous genres and games, most recently The Division and The Division 2, makes Red Storm a perfect fit for this project.

[…] Brand new content will be coming to The Division 2, with development led by Ubisoft Massive and support from Ubisoft Bucharest. While it’s still too early to discuss any specific details, this update will include an entirely new game mode for The Division franchise and new methods for levelling your agents with an emphasis on increasing build variety and viability. We look forward to revealing more later this year ahead of this content’s late 2021 release.”

It’s no single-player spin-off but are you ready for more The Division goodness through this year and the next? Tell us what you think of this surprise news drop in the comments below.