Ubisoft ditches upcoming extraction shooter game in favour of R6 and XDefiant

Another entry into the free-to-play extraction survival shooter game, The Division Heartland, three years after the announcement. This decision comes after the company decided to focus on investing in what they currently have.

“After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately. Our priority now is to support the talented team members at our Red Storm Entertainment studio, who will be transitioning to new projects within our company, including XDefiant and Rainbow Six,” Ubisoft said in its recent earnings call as per IGN.

As far as live service games go, the company has only seen success in Rainbow Six Siege. With XDefiant on its way for a full release this month, it seems like Ubisoft wants another successful live service title before moving on to another.

Ubisoft focuses on quality over quantity

The company have already been cutting costs since last year, and The Division Heartland isn’t the first game caught in the crossfire. Multiple unannounced games were previously reported to be cancelled by the studio. A sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising was also cancelled last year.

Maybe the game will show up as something new in the future. Furthermore, Ubisoft reportedly aims to further divest on big open-world live service games moving forward as part of their games-as-a-service offerings. Nevertheless, the company still have a lot more games lined up in the pipeline, including Splinter Cell remake, Rainbow Six Mobile, Star Wars Outlaws and more.

Recently, the company also revealed Assassin's Creed Shadows, which is also set to release this year. From the cinematic trailer, the game focuses on Japanese history with a different approach of two playable characters, including the legendary Black samurai Yasuke.

Like the other recent single-player titles from Ubisoft, this will also have an only requirement and feature in-game purchases and season passes and comes in three variants for pre-purchase, Standard, Gold and Ultimate edition. The game will also be available on Ubisoft Plus.