Ubisoft recently appeared at Gamescom to present the future of The Division 2, including the unveiling of ‘a big project’ that turned out to be The Division 2: Survivors. As the game approaches its tenth anniversary, more content has been lined up, but for a while, things looked a little sketchy for Ubisoft’s once-iconic third-person shooter MMO.
In a post on social media, Palle Hoffstein, art producer at Massive Entertainment, revealed that a micro-sized team stumped up the courage to ‘resurrect’ The Division 2 when it was in a slump and content delivery had effectively ended, and the turnaround was something incredible.
‘Something Bigger and Lasting’
Ubisoft posted a timeline to social media on August 22, unveiling the immediate and long-term future of The Division franchise, including the string of expansions coming to The Division 2. The team also discussed The Division: Resurgence, an all-new mobile experience set at the heart of The Division’s borderline post-apocalyptic universe.
In a line of comments responding to that post, art producer Palle Hoffstein revealed how The Division 2 almost slipped out of reach, but a dedicated team of just five developers clawed it back from the zero-content abyss:
We had 5 people to restart Division 2. Five! What were we thinking? Ah that was fun.
When a few of us made a small team to resurrect TD2 I had zero interest in adding a year or two, just to sunset the game again. The goal, what we believed we could do, was to build something bigger and lasting. This is fun to see but there’s still so much more we want to do.
I figured the biggest challenge would be staffing and yeah. Studios plan staffing years in advance to keep everyone allocated and busy. We created a problem of being a team that needed positions filled that weren’t on anyone’s spreadsheet. We weren’t supposed to exist.
(Thanks to MP1st for the spot)
The Division debuted in 2016 and turned heads thanks to a solid marketing campaign and a great launch that plunged players into a desperate fight to reclaim New York from looters, shooters, and organized criminals. The Division 2 was released in 2019 and has become a staple of Ubisoft’s live-service lineup, even if things went wavy for a while.
Palle later revealed that when a 2024 crossover event that introduced Resident Evil to The Division aired, he might have been ‘the last person’ on the D2 team:
I might have been the last person actually on the D2 team, to launch the Resident Evil stuff. We were done. Then a few weeks later I was asked if I could do another apparel event for D2. Despite having no artists I said, “sure.” I assumed I could figure something out lol.
Are you glad that this team of five developers got their heads down to ‘save’ The Division 2? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Kojima has the concept for Death Stranding 3
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Division 2 was one of those games I would play for a very short time with very little progress feeling like I should be enjoying it but really struggled with keeping my attention. When I had nothing to play I would try again with starting over because I would completely forget where I even left off and what was going on. A few months ago I decided to give another go at it figuring I would dump it again quickly after. This latest time it really captured me and I think I finally was able to appreciate everything about it. I have spent so much time on it and am really glad I did. Will still take some breaks as other things come out but will for sure keep playing it continuing my current adventure through it.