The official release of The Division is on March 8, 2016. However, in the United Arab Emirates, this release date is not taken too seriously: because the game is already supposed to be on sale there.
In Germany, it is also a common phenomenon that some retailers sell the discs to customers a few days before the official release of new games. This often leads to those lucky customers posting pictures of their latest acquisition online and garnering amazement, jealousy, and suspicion.
As of now, more than a week before the release date, there are photos of offered The Division discs circulating in various online networks. However, no German retailers have broken this release date, rather it’s retailers in the United Arab Emirates.
Fans of The Division who acquire a disc beforehand have very little advantage in knowing they have the game in their possession. The servers will only be brought online upon launch, which is only on March 8. As Ubisoft’s The Division is purely an online game, no one can jump into the apocalypse of New York early.
One thing we can still assume at this point is: Since the discs are obviously already on their way to retailers, any potential improvements and changes will probably only be made in a comprehensive day-one patch or a later update. To implement all fixes and suggestions from the open beta, these discs must have been pressed too early.
It is, by the way, not uncommon for games to be sold this early: In the United Arab Emirates, games like Infamous, Killzone 2, or God of War 3 were available weeks before the launch. This also has a strong impact on the gaming market of the surrounding countries, as the markets are flooded with copies from the UAE in advance.
Even if the launch of The Division feels like it’s eons away, you can take a look into the future here. This is what an agent at level 27 looks like.
