Ubisoft has announced that it has canceled Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland. The decision comes three years after the free-to-play shooter was initially announced.
“After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement to Insider Gaming. “Our priority now is to support the talented team members at our Red Storm Entertainment studio, who will be transitioning to new projects within our company, including XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
The news of the game’s cancellation was told to staff in an email on Wednesday morning, ahead of Ubisoft’s earnings call. In the earnings report, Ubisoft said the decision comes as part of the company’s “increased selectivity of its investments”.
Insider Gaming understands that the game saw a significant shift in its design since its announcement and we’ll share more details on what the game entailed at a later date.
Throughout its development, the game has seen multiple betas with players and was even rated by the Taiwanese ratings board. According to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, the playtests and betas “didn’t resonate with players”.
As mentioned in the statement above, development of the game was being led by Red Storm Entertainment, the studio behind the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games.
The news of the game’s cancellation also comes the same day when the latest installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was officially revealed.
What do you think of The Division Heartland being canceled by Ubisoft? For more Insider Gaming, read about more Xbox games making their way to PlayStation, and subscribe to the Insider Gaming Newsletter to keep up to date with all things gaming.
I’ve been a fan of The Division since the announcement trailer.
I signed up and played the first Betas.
The premise of helping others and trying to put society back was a unique one.
But apparently Ubisoft wants to make more uniform games and get rid of unique ideas.
Shame.