‘The Division’ Latest Delay Victim, Pushed To 2016
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC gamers hoping to get their hands on The Division will have to wait a little longer. Ubisoft announced Tuesday that the open-world third-person shooter won’t make its originally planned 2015 release.
The Division never had a specific release window outside of 2015, so the delay does not particularly come as a surprise. Ubisoft announced the delay on the game’s official blog, where it revealed that the new target is the first quarter of 2016.
We have an important update regarding the release of Tom Clancy’s The Division. Read this article for more info http://t.co/mwpYPJmz2R
— TheDivision (@TheDivisionGame) May 12, 2015
“All of us at Massive, Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment, and Ubisoft Annecy want to ensure the game not only meets our high expectations but also those of our fans and players alike,” the development team wrote. “We are proud of what we have achieved so far and can’t wait to show you more next month at E3!”
The Division is hardly the first game to be delayed from a 2015 release. The current list includes Uncharted 4, The Legend of Zelda for Wii U, and Dead Island 2, among others.
While delays are always disappointing, the good news is that developers are pushing games out to give more time for development. In the case of The Division, this is even more critically important, because the game uses the brand new Snowdrop engine, which is being developed specifically for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles and the next generation of PC graphics.
There’s another good reason that The Division is delayed, too. It spaces out Ubisoft’s release calendar and prevents overlap with the just announced Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and the still to be dated Rainbow Six: Siege. It also avoids a very shooter-heavy fall with Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Halo 5, and Star Wars: Battlefront crowding the market.
For those that don’t know, The Division is set in the United States after a pandemic sweeps through the country. The country has collapsed, and the President has given authority to the Strategic Homeland Division (aka The Division) to combat threats and help bring the country back together.
The game is set in New York City three weeks after the pandemic outbreak. The Division is considered a massively multiplayer game, so players will play with and against other players as well as AI characters. The story is meant to unfold differently for each player, and no two players will experience the exact same story.
What do you think of the delay of The Division? Sound off in the comments below.
[Images via The Division]
