Last week, Ubisoft announced a roadmap for its The Division franchise. The franchise started out with the first game, but even then it was clear to see that the company had bigger plans for it. There were various additional items in collectors editions that alluded to lore in the game, and even a short TV show that came out before the first game. The second game built upon everything the first game did, and now we know that there’s even more on the way. In this article, I want to talk about the upcoming free-to-play title, The Division Heartland, because I think it’s going to be great.
Heartland has been pitched to us as a game set in the same universe of The Division and The Division 2. It’s not directly related to those games though. We have no idea where it sits in the timeline, but I think that’s a good thing. It means that there’s no pressure to keep up with the disease that’s ravaged the US or even the major characters. It can be its own self-contained story that isn’t clouded or contaminated by what the other games are doing.
The second big piece of interesting news on this game is that it’s free-to-play. I think that if Ubisoft felt it could, it would make The Division 2 free-to-play. Truth be told, that’s not going to happen because it’s too busy working on The Division 3, which may well be free-to-play as well. Heartland will be more accessible because it’s free, and it should make for a much more engrossing experience. Like the kind of attention, we’ve seen in Fortnite. Ubisoft is definitely doubling down on the franchise in the right way here. I think the company has seen what other games are doing successfully and is following in a very The Division way.
You can currently sign up to play Heartland early, but I think it’s going to be an early access game for a good year or so. It’s set to launch this year before some new content for The Division 2. I reckon it’ll tie in, and should make for a nice way for players to get into the story more while there are content lulls in the main game.
