That was, however, a controversial change among many in the player base, and after loud backlash from the community, Massive Entertainment has decided to walk back on its decision. Taking to Twitter, the developer confirmed that based on feedback from players, it has decided to not move forward with Seasonal Characters as planned.

“After thorough examination and discussions with the team, we have decided to reevaluate Season 2.0 with particular attention to Seasonal Characters with the goal of progressing without them,” Massive Entertainment wrote. “This change will not impact the previously announced Year 6 plans, but it will require us to assess the changes necessary to the new Seasonal Experience, which will be integrated with Year 6 Season 2 this fall. Once we have ironed out the finer details, we will return with more information, a livestream, and a [public test server].”

How the removal of Seasonal Characters will affect other planned changes and additions in terms of the new seasonal delivery of content remains to be seen, but those who were desperately hoping for the looter shooter to not adopt this particular new approach can rest easy that that won’t happen.

The Division 2 is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and is playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backward compatibility. It will also receive a new paid expansion next year. The Division 3 is also currently in development.

A message from #TheDivision2 team. pic.twitter.com/BcLNITdqew

— Tom Clancy’s The Division (@TheDivisionGame) July 12, 2024

One of the biggest additions to The Division 2 in the new season will be a new story that revolves around Division Agents being sent out to track down Agent Kelso. Players will also have to figure out the motivations of Aaron Keener and track him down.

The season also brings with it new endgame and seasonal progression, and removes the need for players to have bought the game’s Warlods of New York expansion to be able to hit the level 40 cap. All players will be able to hit the level cap now, and in the process, start getting access to endgame activities, challenges, and loot.

Moving forward, starting  from Year 6, Season 2 of The Division 2, the game will make use of a new endgame progression system through something Ubisoft refers to as Seasons 2.0. The progression system will allow players to create and play season-specific characters, encouraging players to experiment with different builds and abilities.

Seasonal characters will start at level 1 in each season, and players will be able to take part in various activities and missions to level up all the way to 40. At end of each season, seasonal characters added to a player’s roster of characters, with all progression and rewards making the jump as well.

Year 6 of The Division 2 will also be bringing with it a new take on the game’s Manhunts system. Rather than targets and lieutenants, players can instead now find new scouts on a weekly basis. Each scout will need players to take on different challenges as they make progress through the season.

Players will also be able to take on Climax Missions in a new difficulty—Master. The new difficulty will offer up new conclusions for each seasons, both in terms of gameplay, as well as rewards that players will get for completing them. Master difficulty missions are designed for groups of 4 players.

Between seasons 2 and 3 of The Division 2’s Year 6, the game is also set to get a new DLC, which will bring with it a whole new story. The DLC is scheduled for early 2025.

Meanwhile, The Division 2 is also getting a free weekend between June 13 and 17, where new players will be able to try the game out.

Touted as “semi-infinite” with randomized progression, it offers competitive leaderboards. You’ll also earn new rewards and access new “build rules,” which aren’t available in the base game. There’s also a story attached to the mode concerning the Hunters, Black Tusk and Ortiz Robotics, specifically their connection to Calvin McManus of Homeland Security.

Other content to look forward to in Year 5 is the Castle Rebuild, which occurs over multiple seasons. In Season 2, a new Incursion is coming, and Season 3 sees players returning to New York. Season 4 adds new story DLC and Seasons 2.0.

In each season, new Manhunts, Events and Leagues will be introduced. There are also some returning cosmetics, including the Leon Kennedy RPD Outfit from the Resident Evil collaboration, which runs from April 25th to May 9th.

PC players can access a test server for the next update on April 21st. Stay tuned for more details on The Descent in the coming weeks.

The newest target is Zachary “Stovepipe” Beattie, an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Specialist recruited by the Black Tusk. Players must collect intel on their location by taking down four different targets. March sees Charles “Chunks” Crawford and Lieutenant Bantam available to hunt.

Mort “Cursed” Kellogg enters the fray in April, and Beatrice “Auntie” Kaplan is available in May. Defeat all of them, and Stovepipe is yours. Though Year 4 is coming to a close, The Division 2 will still get new content in Year 5 courtesy of Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Toronto and Ubisoft Shanghai. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

In August 2022, Massive Entertainment confirmed new loot and two Apparel Events for Season 11. It will also include a new game mode, Manhunt target, and quality-of-life improvements. The long-awaited Specialization Revamp still doesn’t have a release date, but perhaps there will be an update next week.

Of course, this isn’t the end. While Massive works on new projects like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and its untitled Star Wars game, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Toronto and Ubisoft Shanghai will work on Year 5 content. It reportedly kicks off in Spring 2023 (no word on whether this has shifted) and features a new game mode, Descent. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

https://twitter.com/TheDivisionGame/status/1628062057856737285

In layman’s terms, essentially, the issue is preventing Ubisoft from updating the game at all until the build generation system has been fixed. The studio has revealed that it is currently working on fixing the problems, but until the build generation system is restored, no server or client-side updates are possible.

The studio has stated that it has made good progress over the last 96 hours in restoring critical aspects of the build generation system, and will share a timeline for when the problem will be fixed tomorrow.

Players of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will also be getting some sort of compensation because of these issues, which will be detailed in an update tomorrow.

A message from #TheDivision2 team. pic.twitter.com/KuPiz7t9PL

— Tom Clancy's The Division (@TheDivisionGame) February 9, 2023

Set in Washington D.C., The Division 2 sees special agents of the Strategic Homeland Division battling hostile elements. You’ll discover settlements that need help, either with defense or resources, and several enemy factions competing for supremacy. Warlords of New York is an expansion that sees players returning to Manhattan to battle Aaron Keener, a rogue agent who stole the virus for his plans.

The Division 2 is currently in the middle of Season 10 with a new Manhunt target, Season Pass, difficulties for missions like Tidal Basin and Manning National Zoo, and more. The Steam version seems to route back to Ubisoft Connect when launching, and the PC version still suffers from crashes due to memory leaks. A free trial is available on Ubisoft Connect, so it might be worth trying before buying.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition will be the first of the two games to get released on Steam, slated to be available on January 5. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, on the other hand, is set to hit Steam a week later on January 12.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is currently in the midst of its tenth season, which features a new Manhunt—General Anderson—as well as new difficulty options for Tidal Basin and Manning National Zoo, as well as new gear, apparel, targets, leagues, and global events.

Alongside the base game, The Division 2‘s Warlords of New York expansion will also be available on Steam, bringing its own storyline and other content to the Steam release of the game.

Ubisoft has more recently brought Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to Steam. Watch Dogs Legion is also coming to Steam on January 26.

Though Ubisoft Massive said that The Division 2 wasn’t in development for other platforms, it will be backwards compatible for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5. This was confirmed during the recent Ubisoft Forward when the new PvE mode The Summit was showcased. Of course, whether it will take advantage of features like ray-tracing, 4K or higher frame rates also wasn’t confirmed.

This backwards compatibility support also doesn’t mean that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will support the game when they launch. As always, more details are needed. However, since other looter shooters are either cross-gen (Outriders) or have dedicated next-gen versions (Destiny 2), it wouldn’t be impossible for Ubisoft to release Xbox Series and PS5 versions of The Division 2 in the future.

In the meantime, The Summit is slated to launch on September 22nd for current-gen versions of the game. Players will venture solo or in squads of three through 100 floors in a skyscraper, taking on tougher foes and completing objectives as they progress. It’s a free update but only for those who own the Warlords of New York expansion. Check it out below.

Continue your mission in the next generation. ➡️

We're excited to announce that The Division 2 will be playable on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S thanks to backward compatibility! pic.twitter.com/F4ich0Fk9j

— Tom Clancy's The Division (@TheDivisionGame) September 10, 2020

Ubisoft Massive is prepping Title Update 10 for The Division 2, which offers buffs to almost all weapons, changes to Exotics and gear sets, and improved rewards for Heroic and Legendary difficulty activities. The update goes live tomorrow but the overall roadmap for this month has also been revealed. Season 2: Keener’s Legacy is currently slated to go live on June 23rd.

This will introduce a new Prime Target, two new Exotics, a new gear set and new brand set. You can also expect a skill variant, the Healing Trap, to become available. The game’s second raid, Operation Iron Horse, goes live on June 30th. It will be a level 40 encounter and not have matchmaking (the level 30 version will release one week later).

Operation Iron Horse will feature two new gear sets and two new Exotics. Eight players, split into two teams of four, are recommended but thankfully, you don’t need to own the Year 1 Pass or the Warlords of New York expansion to access it. A Discovery Mode for the raid is also in the works so expect more news on that later.