As part of Ubisoft’s major restructuring over the year, the company has now revealed more details about what it refers to as Creative House 2 – which has been named Massive Entertainment. The division will be the main team in charge of The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell, as well as some new IP like March of Giants.
This new version of Massive, headed up by Christoph Hartmann as general manager, will include development teams based out of Montréal, Paris, Sweden, and Toronto.
“Massive Entertainment has always been defined by passion, ambition and incredible talent, and our focus now is on what comes next,” said Hartmann in a statement. “Bringing our teams together under one identity gives us the opportunity to combine the creative energy and expertise across Montréal, Paris, Sweden and Toronto to shape the next generation of these iconic franchises, create new games and IPs, and push our craft and technology forward.”
Moving forward, no major changes for Massive Entertainment have been announced when it comes to “ongoing commitments for players or partners”, which indicates that the team is likely still continuing its work on supporting The Division 2 and developing The Division 3.
Currently, Massive likely has its hands full with the release of The Division 2’s upcoming expansion – Echoes of Central Park – which is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 3rd. The expansion will bring a host of new content to the game, including three new companions and Central Park and the Upper West Side as explorable locations.
The team is also working on a free update for all platforms that will bring cross-platform multiplayer. The update is slated for release on November 10th, and the studio has said that console players will have to wait for a while before being able to actually enable crossplay. Only PC players will get access to the feature at first, before console players are gradually migrated into the system.
In the meantime, development on The Division 3 is also likely continuing. While no new details have been revealed, a report from June indicated that the team had ramped up the game’s development by hiring more developers at its Malmö office in Sweden. At the time, Massive was hiring for roles like senior realization programmer, lead game designer, animation director, senior AI game designer, lead AI programmer, senior tools programmer, and senior systems game designer.
The Division 3 was officially announced all the way back in 2023. Since then, however, Massive Entertainment has remained tight-lipped about the project, which has raised plenty of concern, especially following the departure of former executive producer Julian Gerighty earlier this year. However, to assuage some of these concerns, Gerighty said, “The Division’s future burns bright, and I can’t wait for you to discover what the teams have been working on.”
As for the other franchises under Massive Entertainment’s purview, Splinter Cell and March of Giants are the only two projects currently in the works. No new game in the Ghost Recon franchise has been announced.
