In The Division, we look back at the year 2016. What have been the highlights of the MMO shooter so far?
The year 2016 was a rollercoaster for The Division – and that in the truest sense of the word. Because at launch, the game took off steeply, breaking record after record, only to gradually lose player interest. After that one “up,” it was all downhill for months. How did that happen?
The key events in The Division in 2016
On March 8 of this year, the third-person online shooter from Ubisoft/Massive was released. In advance, the beta record already showed that the player base was looking at The Division with curiosity and high expectations. Sales records followed. The Division became a huge success for Ubisoft.
The gameplay was well received, as were the story missions and the setting. The endgame was still manageable, but future updates were expected to provide new content quickly. There was great hope that The Division could maintain its success in the long run.
But then came the first free update “Incursions”. This was the first update of the “Year 1” plan, which included two free and three paid DLCs.
With “Incursions,” the major problems began. On the one hand, the “Incursions” were not the hoped-for raids, but rather smaller PvE activities, which disappointed many agents. On the other hand, the gear sets were introduced, which some viewed as the root cause of all problems. Because they threw the balance completely out of whack.
The Conflict Update (Clear Sky, DZ Features) and the Underground DLC (Underground, Dragon’s Nest) provided additional gear sets, which completely ruined the balance, until some agents said, “The Division is unplayable.” The low point was reached in August, when Massive publicly announced: Sorry, our game is not fun.
In essence, the first months can be summarized as follows: With every new update, the developers inserted new problems they had to chase after endlessly. On top of that, they fought (and still fight) against cheaters and hackers. In the early months, exploits, cheats, and glitches were the order of the day. “Bullet King” is probably a familiar term to every agent.
With the statement “Our game is not fun,” Massive pulled the emergency brake. This could not continue. In the fall, they therefore worked together with community representatives on Update 1.4, which completely overhauled the player experience. With success. Since the end of October, agents have been gradually returning to the post-apocalyptic New York. Things are starting to look up again. Update 1.5 and the Survival DLC continue this trend. The Division is fun again.
Our most successful articles about The Division
A look at our strongest Division articles emphasizes that The Division is a loot game: Everything revolves around items, weapons, armor pieces, and mods.
- While in the first weeks and months after launch, the AUG, Vector, and M1A dominated, significantly more readers were interested in our article about the assault rifle AK-74 black market version. The popular weapon could achieve over 124,000 views.
- Almost 100,000 readers browsed through our Division article, where we presented several builds. After all, you have to combine all the loot sensibly.
- The third strongest article with nearly 85,000 views dealt with the locations of the gear set pieces. In it, we cover the first four gear sets.
In the following spots come the Vector submachine gun, farm methods, and our Division guide collection.
What’s next in 2017?
In spring 2017, we can expect the last DLC of the “Year 1” plan: “Last Stand.” This will be released with Update 1.6, which will shake up PvP and the Dark Zone. There is still no concrete release date.
What happens next is still up in the air. There are already initial hints of a possible Year 2 for The Division that have surfaced. However, there are no official announcements yet. Since Massive put so much work into the game with Update 1.4 to make it “future-proof,” it is unlikely that they will say after “Last Stand”: “Bye, that’s it!”
Ttime says:
Throughout the entire year 2016, I had the opportunity to accompany The Division on Mein-MMO.de and witness all the highs and lows. It was an exciting year for the MMO shooter, which had to deal with numerous teething problems. Now that most of these have been cured, I can’t imagine that after “Last Stand” it would be over. I think in 2017, The Division will really kick off again. I am excited.
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