‘The Division’: PS4 Patch 1.4 Goes Live, Daily Player Levels Increase To Launch Numbers — Is ‘The Division’ Playable Again?

Let’s face it: The Division has become a joke of a game over time.

Everyone had high hopes for The Division. Some figured that it would be a Destiny killer. Others thought that it would execute the shooter-and-RPG mix like others couldn’t do before it. The beta was interesting. The Dark Zone was fun, though there was a high chance that you were just as likely to get robbed as you were to get helped. The weapons, gear, and items reminded us of how such a massive game should work. In the end, however, it fell flat on its face.

Numbers began to dwindle as patches were released for The Division. There were bugs, and players were harassing others by blocking their ability to proceed in the game. Developer Ubisoft made changes here and there, but that was just the beginning of their problems.

If you’ve played The Division, you’re most likely aware of the bugs and issues that came with the patches that went live. Players were able to farm powerful drops for little to nothing, change stats to ridiculous levels, and manipulate the game for their personal gain. While Ubisoft wanted to crack down on such practices, the game ultimately became almost completely unplayable.

According to the official Tom Clancy’s The Division site, the patch that has been released will address many of the game’s bugs, while adding features. While the list is extensive, it brings about the question as to how long the game will hold up at this point.

The good news? It appears that the update is bringing players back into normal rotation. According to a report by GameSpot, the daily player levels have increased to around where it was during the launch of The Division. While the hype isn’t as big as a new game being released, it certainly speaks volumes about the high hopes that players have for the game.

Ubisoft developers spoke to PCGamesN in regards to the project, reporting that the flow of activity in the game had increased since the patch went live. Anne Blondel, Ubisoft’s vice president of live operations, noted that the patch was working as intended.

“Since the release of patch 1.4, we went back to the daily active users we had at launch, because people were so impressed,” Blondel stated. She mentioned Ubisoft’s dedication to improving the game, delivering hope to those who might have still had a sour taste in their mouths after The Division flopped.

Meet our fantastic devs who worked on #TheDivision alongside @UbiMassive, @Ubisoft Annecy and @RedStorm! pic.twitter.com/B0Bo8xzSz7

— Ubisoft Reflections (@UbiReflections) November 24, 2016

Blondel continued, mentioning the tough decision on whether they would focus on more content or dial it back to fix what problems had already arisen.

“Some players left the game earlier than what we thought, then we had to make that tough call: do we keep providing them with extra content or do we stop everything for a while, settle down, fix everything, and then once the game is where it should be, then we start providing more content,” Blondel said. “And this is what we did and the community was super happy about it, even though they were disappointed at first that we were to push back the next DLC releases.”

DLC should be the least of a developer’s concern if the game is almost unplayable. With the patch live, it gives plenty of time to figure out the new direction that should be taken. Ubisoft is known for having games that aren’t the best in the “mechanics” department, but it’s nice to know that they’re hitting stride in addressing bugs and issues.

It seems like a good time to get back into The Division if you’ve left the game. With the addition of different features such as “Survival” and new gear rewards, perhaps Ubisoft will bring the game back from the ashes.

[Featured Image By Ubisoft]