Massive Entertainment’s Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 fans who were hoping for a version of the popular cover shooter made just for next-gen consoles may be out of luck. In a recent interview, the creator said that a release like this is “unlikely” to happen.
The unique looter shooter got a lot of new material with the release of The Division 2 Season 11 late last month. The original release date was pushed back by several weeks because of technical issues.
When it comes out on PC and devices in 2019, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 moves the cover-based co-op action from New York City to a chaotic Washington D.C. that is still recovering from the Dollar Flu outbreak that happened before the first game.
The first game in the series, 2016’s innovative but ultimately flawed Tom Clancy’s The Division, got off to a rough start, but the sequel found a loyal fan base thanks in large part to a better gameplay loop and unique unlockables that make players want to come back to the looter shooter again and again.
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At Ubisoft’s Division Day earlier this month, the game’s Year 5 plan and new information about the free-to-play spinoff The Division Heartland were shown off. In a new interview with gaming site MP1st, Yannick Banchereau, the creative director of The Division 2, said that a version of the famous looter shooter game made just for next-gen consoles is not likely.
Banchereau said that a version of The Division 2 built from the ground up for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S is “unlikely to happen” because “taking full advantage of those would mean the game would no longer be available on the old generations.”
Banchereau says that the studio made this choice so as not to split up the player group by cutting off players with older hardware. He adds that the studio is “not ready to leave them behind and ask them to upgrade.” Fans who wanted a version of The Division 2 that took full advantage of next-gen systems will be disappointed by this news.
However, it’s easy to see why Massive Entertainment wouldn’t want to turn off support for older hardware and lose a lot of players. Players of The Division 2 on Steam have had a lot of problems since the game came out earlier this year.
Massive may also be trying to avoid the many technical problems that would come with releasing a completely new version of the game. The Division 2 players on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S can still enjoy higher framerates and resolutions than players on older platforms.
But a next-gen version doesn’t seem likely, and new rumors say that Ubisoft isn’t working on The Division 3, so fans of the series may have to wait a long time before it fully supports modern consoles. The Division 2 is now available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.