In its latest earnings report capping off its fiscal year ’24, Ubisoft has revealed that it’s made the decision to cancel development on The Division Heartland, which was going to be a free-to-play survival-action multiplayer shooter for consoles and PC, and was originally announced back in 2021.
Ubisoft has revealed its strategy going forward will be to focus on two core segements – open world adventures and games-as-a-service (GaaS), with Heartland being scrapped in favour of putting more resources onto “bigger opportunities” like XDefiant and Rainbow Six. The company’s upcoming slate for the next financial year includes XDefiant in that GaaS category as well as two of those “open world adventures” in Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which had its big reveal overnight.
“As part of Ubisoft’s efforts to streamline its operations and adapt to evolving market trends, there have been further reorganizations within the Global Publishing teams, both at the APAC region, that is now organized into three engagement hubs, and at the central level,” the company wrote in the report. “Additionally, in line with the increased selectivity of its investments, Ubisoft has decided to stop development on The Division® Heartland and has redeployed resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
Ubisoft is about to run its big June Ubisoft Forward showcase, where it’s expected to share more on Assassin’s Creed Shadows including gameplay, and presumably a deeper dive into Star Wars Outlaws ahead of that game launching quite soon on August 30th.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on November 15th and casts players as Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, each with their own origins, stories and playstyles as well as their own independent progression. You’ll be able to explore an open world set in feudal Japan with changing seasons and weather, bustling towns and gorgeous landscapes and even customise your own dedicated hideout with a growing shinobi league.
