After several years in development, Ubisoft has officially cancelled its free-to-play shooter, The Division Heartland. This spin-off would have featured players roaming a rural country town in squads, fighting for survival on abandoned town streets. Now, the game itself has been abandoned, with all work ceasing. Developer Red Storm Entertainment will be reassigned to other projects, as Ubisoft pursues “bigger opportunities” in the live service arena.
“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,” Ubisoft said.
This change appears to be part of an overall streamlining of Ubisoft operations, and a new push to “adapt to evolving market trends.” As part of this overhaul, the company has laid off some staff, and reorganised its global teams. Per a note in its latest release, its ongoing cost reduction plan is “well on track.”
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As for The Division Heartland, its cancellation is not a major surprise. It was announced three years ago, and there has been little movement since. With XDefiant covering similar ground, it makes sense that Ubisoft would look to readjust.
There’s also the matter that the popularity of live service games is currently dwindling. While there are games like Fortnite that continue to succeed, high competition in the genre means there’s a few notable live service champions, and newcomers have a tougher time reaching their intended audience. Recently, we’ve seen a number of high-profile live service game failures, including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which have forced a rethink of these games as surefire hits.
Even without The Division Heartland on its roster, Ubisoft still has plenty in the works. In XDefiant and the Rainbow Six series, it’s still got a finger in the live service pie. It’s also working on a number of highly-anticipated single player games, in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws. With Ubisoft Forward returning in June 2024, there could be even more games to add to this roster shortly.
