Tom Clancy's 'The Division 2' announced by Ubisoft
Will be shown at E3 2018, this summer
As Destiny 2 stumbles, its ancient enemy rises up to meet it. That's right: Tom Clancy's 'The Division' is getting a sequel.
Ubisoft released a statement from Julian Gerighty, Creative Director at Massive Entertainment announcing 'Tom Clancy: The Division 2,' saying:
"We are very pleased to announce that we are currently working on Tom Clancy's The Division 2 . The development is led by Massive Entertainment and driven by close collaboration with Ubisoft Annecy, Redstorm, Reflections, Ubisoft Bucharest and Ubisoft Shanghai. The Division 2 will be based on an updated version of the Snowdrop Engine that will help us realize our ambitions for this title. More importantly, we can also invest all the experience we've accumulated over the past two years in this sequel to make sure everything is going well."
While many looter or MMO-lite games have been compared to Destiny, none bear such direct resemblance as 'The Division,' Ubisoft's take on the 'shared world shooter' that Bungie pioneered.
In 2014, as Destiny's hyped but flawed launch saw millions of players flee an incomplete product, but with the taste of shared-world shooting and RPG-like encounters still fresh on their tongues.
Destiny's first true competitor arose swiftly after: Tom Clancy's 'The Division.'
Rather than a shared world shooter in the distant starlit frontier of a sci-fantasy world, 'The Division' was set in a near-future New York. Desolate just as Destiny's, but closer to home. With Ubisoft's guidance, and a promise of long-term suport, it had every intention of overtaking Bungie's young franchise.
Like Destiny, all winds pre-release blew in its favor. It launched as the most pre-ordered game of all time. Yet, it stumbled in the exact same ways Destiny did. Its damage model was broken, leading to prolonged fights that just weren't fun. The material grind was a Sisyphean chore. Its progression systems were tedious and its loot system was a schizophrenic nightmare.
For players who'd recent left Destiny behind, it was déjà vu. Developers, Massive Entertainment, promised they were in it for the long-haul though, promising long-term updates to improve the game. The game's damage model and loot systems were entirely revamped. But the end-result didn't matter.
Bungie made did the same with 'The Taken King.' Destiny's infamously bad loot system was removed from the game completely. The convoluted and nonsensical "Light" progression system was replaced with a Defense/Attack average score. The material grind was axed entirely.
The end-result was the "shared world shooter" players wanted. And The Division was now a redundant entry in many players' libraries. And so, it faded away.
But three years later, with Destiny 2 now struggling, and gamers once again looking for new games to scratch that itch, The Division 2 has ample room to rise. It's a far less forgiving world, with competitors like Cyberpunk 2077 and Anthem on the horizon. But Massive Entertainment promises they've learned from their mistakes; a skill that Bungie seemingly struggles to learn. And it’s a skill that players reward.