The Division Heartland: Free-to-play spin-off set in a fractured America canceled as Ubisoft shifts focus to more open-world and GaaS titles
Ubisoft switches gears a bit.
Today, Ubisoft reported its Q4 and full-year earnings for the year ending March 31, 2024, during which it revealed the cancelation of The Division Heartland.
As part of Ubisoft’s efforts to streamline its operations and adapt to evolving market trends, it has stopped development on the game, and redeployed resources to “bigger opportunities” such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.
According to co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, the cancelation is in line with the “strategic pillars announced last year,” the firm’s “strategic focus” is returning to leadership in the Open World Adventure segment and expanding its Games As A Service (GaaS) experiences.
“We are committed to continuing our turnaround in FY25 thanks to a very promising line-up that includes Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Rainbow Six Mobile, Star Wars Outlaws, The Division Resurgence, and XDefiant,” he said.
Guillemot continued, stating the company’s upcoming Ubisoft Forward event on June 10 will further showcase its games and its “dedication to consistently creating and delivering high-quality, long-lasting experiences for players.”
The Division Heartland was announced in 2021 with development being led by Red Storm Entertainment, a studio with close ties to the Tom Clancy licenses, that has also worked on The Division and The Division 2.
Set in small-town America within the Division universe, the game was originally slated for a release in 2023 on PC, consoles, and cloud. This standalone free-to-play game was to introduce new playable characters in a rural setting called Silver Creek in the American Midwest, left in ruins following the spread of the Dollar Flu.
In it, you would have taken on the role of loyal Division agents fighting alongside and against other trained agents, while exploring the secrets of Silver Creek and trying to give hope to those that remained.
Ubisoft announced The Division 3 was in the works in 2023.