Ubisoft has developed the The Heartland Division, the free-to-play game set in the universe of Tom Clancy’s The Division, the company announced Wednesday. The game was announced in 2021. The publisher said it will direct the resources elsewhere, specifically to XChallenging and the Rainbow Six franchise.
The Heartland Division is set in the aftermath of a devastating pandemic that devastated the fictional flyover town of Silver Creek. The multiplayer game, developed by Red Storm Entertainment, would see players dealing with an ever-changing contagion, new survival imperatives and a deadly night cycle in the free-to-play spin-off of The Division franchise. Ubisoft made a big show of it Hartland during last year’s Division Day event, and conducted closed playtests of the game. But it seems like the publisher is following the direction of many other publishers who are canceling development projects or abandoning free-to-play live service games.
In recent months, multiple AAA publishers and studios have canceled their live service games in development. This also applies to the long-in-development The last of us online at Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment’s self-titled fantasy survival game. And last week, Microsoft ended further development Redfall in line with the closure of Arkane Austin.
Still, The Heartland Division‘s cancellation is notable given the publisher’s commitment to problematic projects such as Skull and bones – which had a ten-year development cycle – and the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake. But more resources are being sent there XChallenging might be just what the delayed, substantially reworked Tom Clancy game needs.
Ubisoft has two other announced The Division projects in the works: The revival of the divisiona free-to-play multiplayer mobile third-person shooter game, and The Division 3from Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft confirmed was in the works last September.
The Heartland Division is one of several cancellations Ubisoft has confirmed in recent years. In 2023, the company also canceled three unannounced titles Immortals Fenyx Rising 2. The year before, it canceled four projects in development that had not been publicly announced.
Ubisoft’s lineup for next year now includes: Assassin’s Creed Shadows (officially unveiled earlier today), Rainbow Six mobile, Star Wars Outlaws, The revival of the divisionAnd XChallenging.