Nearly two and a half years after Ubisoft originally announced the game in September 2023, it's now been confirmed that The Division 3 — the next mainline entry in the publisher's popular Tom Clancy's The Division open-world looter shooter RPG franchise — is in development.
Executive producer Julian Gerighty (creative director of Star Wars Outlaws) at Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment studio announced the news during the New Game Plus Showcase on Thursday afternoon, noting that the game is "shaping up to be a monster."
"So The Division 3 is in production, right? This is not a secret, it's been announced. It's shaping up to be a monster," he said in his interview. I can't really say anything more than that, but this is — within these walls, in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be [have] as big an impact as Division 1 was [had]."
Released in 2016, the original The Division game was an extremely influential title. Not only was it lauded for its highly detailed open-world depiction of a wintry, post-apocalyptic New York City, but it also stood out as one of the first and best third-person looter shooter-style RPG shooters, and arguably pioneered the extraction shooter gameplay loop with its Survival DLC's Dark Zone.
Thus, to hear the game's producer suggest it will rival The Division in terms of impact is significant, and sets very high expectations for Ubisoft and Massive's third major entry in the franchise. Sadly, Gerighty had nothing else to say about the project, but knowing that it's very ambitious is exciting nevertheless.
Gerighty did, however, have plenty to say about the upcoming Survivors expansion for The Division 2 that's scheduled to release in 2026, which is actually what Massive's segment of the showcase was primarily focused on.
Survivors is drawing heavy inspiration from the first The Division and its Survival DLC, and is being helmed by the original game's director Magnus Jansén. It's giving Washington D.C. a bleak, snowy overhaul with dynamic weather systems, and like Survival, will feature extraction shooter-style PvPvE gameplay with new locations, resource management, and more.
It was also revealed that "there's a team in Paris" working and "putting the final touches" on "a mobile execution of the promise of Division 1." This new mobile game will be set in the original title's setting of New York with the same events happening (the onset of a mysterious pandemic), but tells "a brand new story, with mechanics that are really fine-tuned to a mobile phone."
This isn't the first time Ubisoft has tried to branch out with a spinoff of The Division — it had a free-to-play offshoot named The Division Heartland that was ultimately canceled in 2024 — but based on the advanced gameplay footage of the title shown in the presentation, it seems all-but-guaranteed that this one is actually coming out.
After the positive impact delays had on the performance of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the publisher said it's delaying its other major projects to make sure they launch in a high-quality state, including The Division. That means we may not see The Division 3 until 2028.
The good news, though, is that the first two games are both on Xbox Game Pass, so if you haven't played them yet, you can use Microsoft's buffet-style gaming service to do so on Xbox systems and Windows PC.
Are you excited for The Division 3? Will you be checking out this new The Division mobile game when it releases? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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