Five years into The Division 2’s life, developer Massive Entertainment is looking to inject new life into the looter shooter with some significant changes to its core loop, though it seems not all of them will be implemented the way the studio would have hoped for. Last month, Ubisoft revealed that going forward, The Division 2 would reset players back down to base level at the start of each season, allowing content to be delivered to both fresh and veteran players alike without having someone be too overleveled or underleveled.
That was, however, a controversial change among many in the player base, and after loud backlash from the community, Massive Entertainment has decided to walk back on its decision. Taking to Twitter, the developer confirmed that based on feedback from players, it has decided to not move forward with Seasonal Characters as planned.
“After thorough examination and discussions with the team, we have decided to reevaluate Season 2.0 with particular attention to Seasonal Characters with the goal of progressing without them,” Massive Entertainment wrote. “This change will not impact the previously announced Year 6 plans, but it will require us to assess the changes necessary to the new Seasonal Experience, which will be integrated with Year 6 Season 2 this fall. Once we have ironed out the finer details, we will return with more information, a livestream, and a [public test server].”
How the removal of Seasonal Characters will affect other planned changes and additions in terms of the new seasonal delivery of content remains to be seen, but those who were desperately hoping for the looter shooter to not adopt this particular new approach can rest easy that that won’t happen.
The Division 2 is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and is playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backward compatibility. It will also receive a new paid expansion next year. The Division 3 is also currently in development.
A message from #TheDivision2 team. pic.twitter.com/BcLNITdqew
— Tom Clancy’s The Division (@TheDivisionGame) July 12, 2024