Even with all the big games coming this month, including a looter shooter competitor in the form of BioWare’s Anthem, Ubisoft is riding pretty high. It announced an open beta for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 for March 1st to 4th. On top of that that, even with the issues in the private beta, it seems pre-orders – at least for the PC version – are pretty good.
In a recent conference call (as per Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter), Ubisoft talked about driving users to its own storefront. Pre-orders for The Division 2 are already higher than its predecessor, with pre-orders on Uplay being six times higher. Ahmad clarified that this was only for the PC version of the game, so we’ll have to wait and see how Xbox One and PS4 perform.
Though we don’t doubt the strong response to the beta, there’s probably another reason why Uplay pre-orders are so strong. The Division 2 was announced to be available on the Epic Games Store and not Steam on PC. It could be that existing users will opt for Uplay rather than investing in another platform, especially since Uplay is required for playing regardless. The addition of a discount with 100 Uplay Points could also be a nice incentive.
The Division 2 is out on March 15th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.