As a gamer, would you trade a long awaited DLC for a performance fixing update? Well, players of the popular post-epidemic 3rd person shooter The Division, aren’t being left with a choice on the matter.
Ubisoft, makers of The Division, have reached out to its gamers and fans via its company blog to announce that its Survival DLC that was planned for release sometime this summer is actually being shelved in favor of a new update. The new update is intended to address a majority of user complaints and feedback that has been racking up during the last six months of gameplay.
The Division has been out for almost six months, and what an incredible half year it’s been! Through regular game updates, a first expansion, and weekly patches, we have put a lot of energy into constantly improving the game. While these efforts have allowed us to bring more gameplay variety, the overall experience has been affected by lingering issues that have accumulated since release.
With Update 1.4 in the works, it has become clear with your feedback and our own observations that our priority should now be on improving the core gameplay experience. For this reason, we have made several adjustments to our development schedule: Update 1.4 will be released in October independently from Survival, and will focus entirely on bug fixing, game balancing, and other improvements. Survival, the second expansion that was initially planned for release with Update 1.4 is now postponed to a later date this year. The third expansion, Last Stand, will be released in early 2017. This new schedule will not only enable us to strengthen the core experience without adding new content but also continuously improve it by allowing for more production time to ensure the quality of future updates as well.
Ubisoft claims that the new update numbered 1.4 coming out in October will primarily focus on the following issues:
- Fixing bugs, including those listed in our Known Issues as well as many other ones
- Making loot drops more relevant to the player
- Enemy difficulty and time to kill
- Gear Sets and Weapons balancing
- Solo player experience
- Dark Zone and PvP balancing
- Quality of life additions based on community suggestions (such as weapon skins no longer taking inventory space).
So, instead of getting a new DLC in this summer, Division gamers are receiving a schedule adjustment to accommodate some long-awaited gaming and performance issues. The new schedule is as follows; Update 1.4 is set to be released sometime in October while the first of two planned DLC’s in Survival and Last Stand will be released later this year and early 2017.
Some would argue that Ubisoft’s prioritization will result in a better overall choice for its gaming community, it can also still be seen as a bit of let down to players who have adjusted to The Division’s shortcomings and were waiting for new gaming experiences from the title this summer.
In the end, Ubisoft is attempting to put a bit more polish on an arguably great game for fans while still committed to bringing new experiences later this year and early next. The situation could have been much worse with The Division not receiving a performance update and have its DLC’s delayed, as other games of this console generation are want to do.
