In March 2019, the MMO shooter The Division 2 launched with an outstandingly strong start. The title received 84% on Metacritic, and players were excited about the story and atmosphere of the loot shooter. In 2023, Ubisoft is in a crisis, and the game series The Division seems nearly dead after 3 years. “How could it go so wrong?” asks our author Schuhmann.
How well was The Division 2 received back then? The release of The Division 2 in March 2019 appeared to be a huge success for Ubisoft: the game was positively reviewed by the press at launch – fans also took a great liking to the game:
- On Metacritic, the PC version received 84% – The Division 1 only stood at 79% at its release
- The usually critical users of MeinMMO were impressed right from the release and rated Division 2 around 79%
It was particularly praised that there was so much content in the game at launch – the atmosphere was highlighted as particularly strong, especially the attention to detail of the open world received much acclaim.
Whereas the release of The Division in 2016 was plagued by bugs, glitches, and exploits, this time everything went smoothly for the most part.
The sales figures were not as outstandingly strong as in part 1
Did the game sell well? Not really:
- In 2016, The Division 1 was a massive hit. The sales figures broke the company record.
- By June 2019 it was said: “The Division 2 is the hit of 2019 so far – but that wasn’t worth much.
- Because The Division 2 apparently only sold as planned on PC – on PS4 and Xbox One, the shooter fell short of expectations
The Division Heartland is currently the hope of the game series:
Development of The Division 2 was stopped very early
How is The Division 2 doing today? The Division 2 practically ran out in 2020 – Ubisoft halted work on The Division 2 after completing the expansion “Warlords of New York”; in February 2021 it was then announced – also surprising for the team – that they would indeed continue working on The Division 2.
But since 2020, there has been hardly anything happening in the franchise – the game has lost significant relevance.
The Division 2 only regained some relevance with the 2020 expansion, but since around October 2020, The Division 2 has barely mattered to most players, if one uses interest in the game measured by Google Trends as a benchmark:
Ubisoft blames 2023 “everlasting live games” for the crisis
How is Ubisoft doing today? Meanwhile, a crisis has broken out at Ubisoft. In a financial update on January 11, 2023, CEO Yves Guillemot said they were “disappointed with current performance.” There were poor sales figures, and some new projects were canceled (via inverse):
- After a sexism scandal in 2020, it seems there are issues at Ubisoft – following the scandal, the chief strategist and creator of the Ubisoft formula was dismissed
- The well-known Ubisoft formula “Open world with numerous collectibles, quests and mini-bosses that are gradually unlocked” seems to have finally worn out
- As a reason for the lack of success in recent years, Ubisoft states that the gaming industry has focused on “mega-brands and everlasting live games”
According to Ubisoft’s logic, they lack a hit just as The Division should have been.
The Division 2 was considered a flop and the end of an era in 2019
Why was The Division 2 later discontinued? Although The Division 2 appeared to be a hit at launch, it was considered a financial flop in Ubisoft’s eyes and triggered a crisis in 2019.
The Division was thrown in the same pot as the even worse failed “Ghost Recon Breakpoint”. Both games had 3 similar problems, as the company analyzed:
- They were sequels to live service titles that had been improved over years
- Both games had new gameplay elements, but they were not well received
- Both titles were also “too close” to their respective predecessors
This analysis of the failure of The Division 2 in October 2019 apparently led to the cessation of development on the title with the expansion “Warlords of New York,” which was then released in 2020.
The expansion received a perfunctory content supply, but it was clear: The Division 2 was no longer actively developed, but only prepared content that the company had on hand was released. Otherwise, the shooter was already in “maintenance mode” very early on.
Ubisoft apparently regretted this decision to stop development just a few months later, after the expansion sold well thanks to a trick with PS Plus – and they realized how urgently Ubisoft needed such a “live service title”.
The major flaw of The Division 2: prioritized campaign over replayability
What was the problem with The Division 2? The shooter “The Division 2” had the problem of not being designed as a live service game at all. The development of The Division 2 began in 2016 when it was still uncertain how the market would shift.
The Division 2 placed much greater emphasis on the story campaign than The Division 1 had:
- While The Division 1 received new game modes with DLCs that provided high replayability
- The Division 2 actually only received self-contained expansions to the campaigns with its DLCs that did not offer significant replayability – it was merely a continuation of the very good campaign
As an example of how The Division 2 was not designed as an “everlasting live service game,” the puzzle missions in the DLCs can serve, the expeditions from the DLCs. They were supposed to be the highlight of the DLCs, but disappointed experienced players as they brought little variety.
Additionally, further problems arose in the endgame aspect of The Division 2: for instance, a flawed item system that constantly buried players with unnecessary drops and later had to be rescued with great effort.
The fact that by 2020 the “pandemic atmosphere” that characterized The Division 2 could also be experienced in a diluted form in everyday life was an additional problem.
Ubisoft will be kicking themselves in 2023 for messing it up
Why is this so tragic? Ubisoft actually had exactly such a “mega-brand as an everlasting live service” game with The Division 1: exactly the type of game that is painfully missed in 2023 and that they look at enviously in other companies.
Moreover, they had an ideal foundation for such a game in 2018:
- The Division 1 found a dedicated, small fan base after years where other studios, like Massive, did great work, had strong development, and functioning PvP
- But The Division 2 moved away from being a “live service” game and focused mainly on a strong campaign. When players finished the campaign, The Division 2 revealed significant weaknesses: PvP was never particularly popular in The Division 2. The further development of the game can only be described as disappointing.
Whether they can recover from this misstep and the second mistake of ending development so early seems questionable now.
Due to the poor further development of The Division 2 and the fact that “pandemic” seems no longer an exciting topic in 2023 as it seemed in 2016, Ubisoft’s dream of “The Division” as a “mega-brand” seems to have faded, even though things looked so good just a few years ago:
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