Anyone who played Tom Clancy’s The Division within the first few months of launch can attest to the game having potential, but slowly growing worse over time. Instead of outright abandoning the game, Ubisoft Massive took its time to overhaul core systems like loot drops, Gear Sets, PvE damage, PvP, and much more, in an attempt to appease fans. Such updates, including Resistance in December 2017, would continue defining the game’s support.
Ubisoft Massive and Red Storm Entertainment, along with other studios, will be looking to address fan feedback even more with The Division 2. Aside from providing a solid end-game to its players along with year of free content, resources have been allocated to address things that might not have been accounted for. DualShockers spoke to creator-director Terry Spier at Red Storm Entertainment recently, who explained the company’s approach to post-launch support for the sequel.
“I think we set a precedent with the original game that it’s important for us to pay attention to the people playing the game, and we are here to provide them a service,” said Spier. “We want to continue to push and we want to continue to evolve the game. I can’t talk about specifically what we’re gonna do, but what I can tell you is we have committed ourselves as a development studio and with the other development studios that we are still here. We’re not going to just take a vacation.
“We’re gonna pay attention, and we have plans in place, and then we have resources allocated to maybe things we didn’t plan for based on feedback, so we can all push forward together and be happy. We spent two-something years, and I don’t know how many years in post-launch, changing [Tom Clancy’s The Division], improving the game, adding more and more to the game. It was very rewarding to be able to do that, to be able to stand in front of players and say, ‘that thing you wanted? We got you.’ We want to do that again because it was really fun.”
As for the new content that could be expected, Spier hinted at all the challenges that await in the franchise’s first ever raid. “The whole first year of content that we have planned out that is at my desk right now — free! No one has to pay a dime to get all the new content that’s coming out. The raid that’s coming—brand new to the franchise. 8-player raid. It’s gonna be huge. It’s not a kiddie event. This is a real knock-em-up, drag you through the mud, ‘how do we do this?’ kind of raid. That’s gonna be great for our player base too.” Now one just hopes that the rewards will be worth it.
The Division 2 is slated to release on March 15th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Its private beta starts on February 7th for those who pre-ordered.