Division 1.8 Canceled or Delayed Due To Avatar Development????

[GamerOfFortuneHD]

Hey guys,

So I heard that Division 1.8 is indeed canceled or delayed for now due to Avatar development. I'm putting together a tell-all video for the community and viewers on my youtube channel and I'm trying to get as much information as I can. What does this mean for the division? With Destiny 2 right around the corner, the division player base is getting a big threat. I'm sure once division 2 actually release it will blow destiny out of the water but what does this mean for the division franchise? Also what happened to the movie?

Source: https://culturedvultures.com/ubisoft-cancel-division-2-seems-like/

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

That's very interesting.  I doubt that 1.8 will be canceled, as they claim to already have parts of it in the works (which seemed to be confirmed by ETF Charlie members), but the fact that there hasn't been any talk at E3 yet on a Division 2, it's possible the sequel was canned.  

Here's some things to consider on this:

• How valid of a source is culturedvultures.com?  Has this info been reported on other sources?  I'll admit that I don't spend a lot of time reading through gaming sites,  but I'm not really familiar with this one.  Again, as I said I don't spend a lot of time on them so it doesn't mean this isn't a legit source. 
  
• Divison, despite it's faults, was Ubisofts best original IP at release so I would have to think it warrants an attempt at a sequel despite the player base dropping off.  With Vivendi possibly making a hostile takeover bid, one would think Ubisoft can't afford to leave money on the table - on the flip side they can't afford to sink a lot of money into something that fails.  This could explain dropping a second game and/or the movie - can you say Assassin's Creed movie?
  
• Destiny had a lot of issues (similar to Division), but Bungie is claiming Destiny is basically a 3 year beta and that the real game will be Destiny 2, could Ubisoft do the same with Division?
  
• On SotG this week, Hamish and Yannick said that Massive was hiring like 200 people to help support their project, such as Division AND Avatar and this is in addition to (I think?) hiring that they've done earlier this year for the same reason.  We can only see the job postings, so there's no way to confirm that they'll be working on both projects, rather this is just what we've been told. 
  
• Massive has said, via SotG, that there will be no more paid DLC for Division and that any future updates, including 1.8, will be free.  So, the only money coming in for the current game will be microtransactions for emote and vanity items, not sure how long it will be able to keep the game viable as it takes money to support a live team and dedicated servers for the game. 
  

I'll probably be able to come up with more things to consider on this topic, but that's a good start.   It's something I've been thinking about and I'm interested to see if more info comes out on it.  

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Something else I thought of, Siege didn't hit it off well when it initially dropped, if I remember right.  However, it had a dedicated group and the game had been steadily growing and had come back to being very popular.  The two games are very different, but it's possible for Division to have a resurgence like Siege, which would almost demand a sequel.  

 

[GamerOfFortuneHD]

I agree those are some valid points but there has been confirmed that they are working on an avatar game and the division development team has been spread all over the place. I just hope they don't put the food on a great franchise and thank you for your info this helped a lot.

 

[GamerOfFortuneHD]

Again especially with the amount of Return on investment they made when Division launched also apparently the movie with Jake Gyllenhaal is still in planning/development stages. I guess we have to what until its official.

 

[TheDarkZone]

All I want to say is F Avatar. That movie was total garbage outside of the special effects. I do not understand why they want to make 4 more of them. One of the worst movies I have seen in the last 10 years. 

 

[quinch1199]

It was noted that the unit working on The Division has had staff moved from there into "other projects" however, they are also pushing on quite a large recruitment drive to back-fill those spots (that part was actually mentioned on the last SoTG by Hamish "we have lots of staff vacancies" or similar).

This is sure to cause a delay on 1.8, however they are officially and fully committed already to 1.8 release. That said, I don't see any major patches AFTER 1.8 and its highly likely they'll see The Division as "complete" once that's hit with only bug fix patches after until the next game based on the universe. 

My opinion is that we won't see 1.8 until Q2 2018 with a follow on game pencilled in for release Q4 2019 at the earliest. Between 1.8 and the new game expect The Division to have plenty of micro transaction items added and potentially cost reduced on the core game drastically 

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

I agree those are some valid points but there has been confirmed that they are working on an avatar game and the division development team has been spread all over the place. I just hope they don't put the food on a great franchise and thank you for your info this helped a lot.

Yes, they confirmed months ago that Massive was working on Avatar and along with that confirmation came notice that they were hiring hundreds to support Division and Avatar.  And they've recently stated, as @quinch1199 mentioned, that they've got TONS of jobs available to cover these projects.  

I shared this article on Twitter and there were many players and content creators that 1.) said the website's credibility is questionable at best and 2.) that they pretty much feel the game has more to come (1.8 and a sequel) and that this is really just click bait. 

 

[GamerOfFortuneHD]

Thank god. There have been so many critics have to say about Division and more. Just hope everything is still on track I have faith in Division and Massive. I just don't want Destiny 2 to come out a siphon all the player base because of something that could have been avoided. I came from PlayStation where I played Warframe and Destiny daily then when division came out I played some on PS4 then jump to pc and sold my consoles. Now Destiny 2 is coming to PC and the reason why is because critics think that division is weak and Bungie can saturate the online scene and siphon the player base. IDK, in the end, its all business but still I just don't want the division to end up like Mass Effect Andromeda and What EA pulled not to mention No Many Sky....

 

[GamerOfFortuneHD]

All I want to say is F Avatar. That movie was total garbage outside of the special effects. I do not understand why they want to make 4 more of them. One of the worst movies I have seen in the last 10 years. James Cameron is a big thing anything he touches is got to make a big entrance. So Avatar is going to get pull over everything. Similar to the Dead Space issue. Dead Space was an amazing game then after the 3rd one all of a sudden the developers went to different jobs and Dead Space was put on ice. This was because of a Star Wars deal. Don't get me wrong I love star wars but these big titles like avatar and star wars are always going to get the spotlight because from a business standpoint it's a money maker.




 

Well said, and it takes them like 10 years to make them lol. 

 

[quinch1199]

Well I think with the announcement of 1.8 we can put this unfounded rumour to bed now. Seems like typical scare tactic reporting as usual. 

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Yup, click bait.