The upcoming MMO shooter The Division will closely examine predecessors like Destiny, GTA, or Red Dead Redemption to learn from the good and not repeat the mistakes.
Ubisoft’s MMO shooter The Division is set to be released later this year. However, it is suspiciously quiet. In one of the rare interviews, Managing Director David Polfedt spoke to journalists from craveonline in the middle of April.
Study and be studied
When asked what can be learned from Bungie’s Destiny, he replied, “It’s incredibly interesting to look at a game like Destiny or GTA or even earlier Red Dead Redemption.” He continued, “These games have so many good ideas worth studying. They encourage us to question certain decisions. In some cases, we also discovered things that we saw as mistakes that we don’t want to repeat. It’s like a textbook. It’s material that can be viewed from many perspectives.”
Polfeldt is confident that one day The Division will also undergo a thorough “autopsy,” as he puts it.
Pressure, resources, and maybe one day a TV series
Otherwise, one can distinctly sense the enormous pressure of expectation resting on the developers of the Scandinavian studio Massive. Since the announcement at E3 2013, players have been expecting a bombshell. They want to deliver.
To this end, they are leveraging Ubisoft’s extensive resources. How extensive these resources and the knowledge they can tap into would only become clear after entering the deal: “You pick up the phone and on the other end, a friendly voice in Bucharest or Shanghai answers.”
There is also a dedicated department for Motion Pictures at Ubisoft, which works on films for Splinter Cell or Assassin’s Creed. Polfeldt says the connections between the game industry and the film industry are becoming increasingly obvious. Films are increasingly relying on computer-generated effects; the gaming industry has the know-how. One day, he hopes, there will be talk of a “The Division” television series or film.
On the release and New York
In The Division, Polfeldt also explains in the interview, they will not attempt to recreate “New York” really accurately, but to capture the soul of the city. In The Division, most of the time, players will be traveling on foot, and when one walks through Manhattan in real life (which he has done), one realizes how vast it is and that many city blocks look similar. Such a setting would not be ideal for a game since it is monotonous.
They have not yet specified a release date, Polfeldt says, because they only want to release the game when they are sure that it is ready. He cannot understand the current trend of releasing games unfinished as a gamer: “It’s not about us releasing the game and after 8 hours it’s over.” At Massive, they plan to establish a long-term relationship with the players.
Mein MMO thinks: Speaking of long-term relationships. At the moment, it seems for many players as if they are waiting for an unknown person with a beautiful voice, who sings all the right things, to unveil her veil. Flirting with The Division is currently akin to chatting with a blind date. The E3 2015 takes place from June 16 to 18 in Los Angeles. Here, fans can expect to see more of the supposed dream girl. Finally.
