New details on Tom Clancy’s The Division continue to trickle out of Ubisoft, as fans prepare for the game’s upcoming closed beta test, but the latest word on The Division might be a tad bit disappointing to anyone looking forward to exploring every nook and cranny of New York City.
Today in supremely disappointing news, it seems developer Massive Entertainment has substantially scaled back its original plans for Tom Clancy’s The Division. For those unfamiliar with the project, The Division is a massively-multiplayer third person shooter for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game is set in an alternate universe, where a biological attack on Black Friday nearly wipes out the population of New York City, and players must work together to protect those left behind.
But it turns out we won’t actually get to explore the vast majority of New York City when Tom Clancy’s The Division heads to stores in March. Despite originally announcing plans to digitally recreate the entire city, and using portions of Brooklyn in previous trailers for the game, Tom Clancy’s The Division creative director Magnus Jansen told The Examiner Midtown Manhattan will be the only borough featured in the launch build of The Division. Fans can apparently expect a 1-to-1 recreation of the borough, which features no shortage of high rises and other interesting locales, but that’s it for now.
Unfortunately, a significant reduction of the game’s map isn’t the only bad news we have for the Tom Clancy’s The Division community this week. Speaking with GamesRadar, The Division associate creative director Julian Gerighty said Massive has decided to scrap a planned feature that would’ve let players sell weapons (and other equipment) to one another for in-game currency. While specifics weren’t given, GamesRadar says Gerighty “cited the ‘priority of different features’” when explaining the decision.
Elsewhere, GameSpot spoke with Jansen about the decision not to include any paid shortcuts in the game. Despite the increasing popularity of experience and currency boosters, even in $60 games like Destiny, Jansen says Ubisoft and Massive currently have no plans to offer any sort of boosters to The Division community. Jansen says common perceptions, like the assumption that the first wave of DLC for a project has been trimmed from the game, ultimately led Ubisoft to focus on post-launch content for The Division instead of microtransactions.
“I don’t see an issue with people paying for content,” Jansen told GameSpot. “There will of course be DLC, because there’s nothing bad about creating more content after we release this huge game.”
For more on Tom Clancy’s The Division, including recently revealed plot points and destinations, take a couple of minutes to check out the game’s latest trailer. Then head down to the comments section and let us know whether or not you’re still excited for the Tom Clancy’s The Division release date.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is being developed for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game is scheduled to debut on March 8.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Tom Clancy’s The Division coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Ubisoft and Massive continue to support The Division in the months following launch.
