Ubisoft Halts Development of ‘The Division Heartland’ to Focus on Larger Projects

Ubisoft has announced that it will halt the development of The Division Heartland, a free multiplayer game planned for release on PC and PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The company stated that it will reallocate resources to focus on “bigger opportunities” such as the XDefiant and Rainbow Six titles, as well as open world video games.

The Division Heartland was revealed in 2021 as a new entry in the Tom Clancy’s The Division franchise, developed by Red Storm Entertainment. At that time, Ubisoft’s head of Finance mentioned their strategy of maintaining Triple A video games while also promoting free games, with an aim towards ambitious Triple A titles in the long term.

After three years, Ubisoft has decided to cancel the development of The Division Heartland and redistribute resources to larger projects like XDefiant and Rainbow Six. This decision is part of a cost reduction plan outlined in the company’s latest quarterly earnings report, aimed at optimizing operations and adapting to changing market trends.

In addition to cancelling The Division Heartland, Ubisoft has also halted development on other unannounced titles and reduced its workforce by over 1,700 positions in the past 18 months. The company’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, has outlined a general strategy focusing on open world titles like Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and Star Wars, as well as service games like XDefiant and Rainbow Six.

Ubisoft aims to regain leadership in open-world video games and expand its presence in Games as a Service (GaaS) experiences. They have a promising lineup of new releases including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Rainbow Six Mobile