Ubisoft has stopped development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, according to an official earnings report released by the company. The looter shooter was set to be the third installment in the Division franchise, and the first to feature a completely free-to-play model. Ubisoft made their announcement brief, only dedicating a single sentence in the report to the cancellation:
Additionally, in line with the increased selectivity of its investments, Ubisoft has decided to stop development on The Division® Heartland and has redeployed resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.
XDefiant is an upcoming free-to-play shooter featuring factions from multiple Ubisoft properties, including The Division, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon. The crossover arena-shooter is available to pre-load now, and the preseason will be available to play for free starting May 21. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Six franchise continues its successful streak, with Rainbow Six Siege entering its 9th year of service. More information on the state of both projects were detailed in Ubisoft’s report.
The Division Heartland was first announced in 2021 and was initially expected to release some time in 2021 or 2022. The game has obviously gone through multiple delays since then, and will now be staying on the drawing board permanently. Heartland was being developed by Red Storm Entertainment, which was co-founded by Tom Clancy himself in 1996, and had reportedly already seen closed betas and public play availability. Other installments in the Division franchise are still on track for operation, including support for The Division 2, which just celebrated its 5-year anniversary. Additionally, mobile game The Division Resurgence is still set to be released some time this year for iOS and Android, with sign-ups for the closed beta open now.
Word of the cancellation of Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland was included in a section of the earnings report highlighting Ubisoft’s multiple cost reduction strategies. Here, Ubisoft additionally reported a 1,700-employee decrease in staff size over 18 months, as well as a total base cost reduction of €150 million between last year and this year. These moves come as waves of layoffs and closures sweep throughout the gaming industry, most recently including the shuttering of multiple Bethesda-owned studios. The Division Heartland was intended to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, and Amazon Luna.