Ubisoft finally gave fans a look at the new Assassin's Creed game -- officially titled Assassin's Creed Shadows - but the exciting reveal was met with a bit of some unexpected sad news. It was reported by IGN that Ubisoft has canceled development on Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland.
Ubisoft confirmed the report, offering a statement on the game's cancelation:
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.
Announced back in 2021, Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland was billed as a PvEvP-focused, survival-action shooter. The free-to-play game was a spin-off of Ubisoft's online action role-playing franchise, Tom Clancy's The Division, which took place in the near-future following a viral pandemic that threw society into chaos. Players take on the role of Division agents who have been trained to operate independently in order to save society.
While Tom Clancy's The Division games combined RPG customization with tactical action combat, Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland focused more on "streamlined survival gameplay." The game was set in the mysterious rural town of Silver Creek.
During the day, players would explore and complete missions. But at night, they would take on the dynamically moving contamination, enemy factions, and player squads by night.
Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland featured two main game modes. The first was a player-versus-player-versus-environment mode featuring a maximum of 45 players. They would fend off against agents from a from a rogue faction known as the Vultures while surviving a virus. The second mode was a player-versus-environment mode in which players would complete missions and collect loot/gear.
Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland was in development at the North Carolina-based Red Storm Studio, which will now transition to supporting other Ubisoft games, such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six. No specific layoffs were mentioned in IGN's report or the company's statement, but Ubisoft, like many other studios across the gaming industry, has been undergoing major cost-cutting measures.
Ubisoft has already reduced its employee numbers by over 1,700 people over 18 months. Numerous titles have also been canceled, including the mysterious Project Q as well as Immortals Fenyx Rising 2.
While Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland has been scrapped, fans can at least look forward to returning to the franchise with Tom Clancy's The Division 3. Ubisoft announced the threequel, which is currently in development at Massive Studio, back in September 2023.