‘The Division’ enjoys biggest launch for UK so far in 2015, old and upcoming features explained
Ubisoft’s biggest title to debut this year is “The Division.” Following fan support during its beta phase, and with the launch just recently wrapped up, it seems that the developer has enjoyed a good deal of support as one of the early successful titles of 2016.
It currently holds the record for biggest game to launch for Q1 of any year in the U.K., Eurogamer reported. It has already surpassed “Gran Turismo 4,” which was released in 2005 for the PS2 platform.
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According to the source, PS4 sales dominated by a small margin at 54 percent, followed by Xbox One sales at 45 percent. Despite the small difference, it is still telling on the performance of the two platforms, considering that Xbox One already had the advantage of early access for the game’s DLCs during the preorder period.
With the game already in players’ hands, the team behind “The Division” has done a little post-mortem discussion with an interview via Wired. Here, Massive Entertainment Creative Director Magnus Jansen talked about the features that it had abandoned during production and some of the team’s plans on the DLCs that will be released for the game.
Among the features that were not part of the final cut was the second-screen feature for a tablet-controlled drone. The cut had something to do with keeping any advantages, whether physical or psychological, to a minimum. According to Jansen, an additional person manning a tablet may feel like a disadvantage to some players who do not have the same privilege. Additionally, the team did not want to turn it into a handicap that becomes a necessity for a team to win.
This was not the only insight that Jansen had shared and discovered with the team while working on “The Division.” While fans of previous “Tom Clancy” titles like “Splinter Cell” may be seeing a deviation on some level, the takeaway for this game is that it brings to life the theme of the Clancy books that ask the question “What if?” To the team, “The Division” hits the prefect balance of simulator and realistic approach, without sacrifice the narrative that sets it apart.
For now, the team is looking at the contents of the post-launch expansions. Players will be happy to know that free content is the first thing on the developer’s mind.
“We’re starting off with content that’s free for everyone, and then down the line we’ll add DLC,” said Jansen in the interview. “We basically started doing the DLC just now—we’ve been working on the core game until right now.”
