On 6th May 2021, The Division fans rejoiced as Ubisoft announced development of a free-to-play spin-off, Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland. Ubisoft are hoping that The Division Heartland, which is being made in parallel to new The Division 2 content, will be the key to expanding The Division‘s player base.
Amazingly, The Division franchise already has a community of over 40 million gamers. However you spin it, that’s impressive. And while Tom Clancy’s The Division may not be quite as mainstream as Call of Duty or Fortnite, it is undoubtedly one of gaming’s most popular franchises. The Division Heartland, with its free-to-play model, presents a real opportunity to entice new players into the universe and take the franchise to new heights.
Here are seven big things you need to know about The Division Heartland:
The Division Heartland release date
When is The Division Heartland coming out? The exact date hasn’t been announced yet. However, in their announcement of The Division Heartland, Ubisoft said: “The game will be made available in 2021-22 on PC, consoles, and cloud.”
Despite this statement, Ubisoft provided an update regarding The Division Heartland‘s release in their most recent quarterly earnings report. It said The Division Heartland will now be released in the next fiscal year, which runs from April 2022 to March 2023.
You can participate in the The Division Heartland beta and playtest
Of course, fans are eager to play The Division Heartland as soon as possible. And who can blame them! So, how can you get your hands on the new game prior to release?
No official announcement has been made regarding an open beta for the new game yet. However, Ubisoft have given gamers the chance to playtest The Division Heartland in its early Alpha and Beta development phases. This is great news for any big fans of the franchise. Even better, registering your interest is really easy.
All fans need to do is go to the Ubisoft website (here’s the link to sign up), choose their desired platform (be it PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 or PS5) and register their interest in playtesting The Division Heartland. We’d advise you sign up ASAP as there will undoubtedly be a large number of applications.
The Division Heartland trailer
Currently, no trailer for The Division Heartland has been released. Given the release window that Ubisoft have shared, fans should expect to see the first teaser trailer for The Division Heartland drop in the next couple of months. That is, if the game is releasing in 2021. If a full release is pushed back to 2022, then it could be Holiday 2021 or even January 2022 before we get the first trailer.
The Division Heartland story
With the new game being a free-to-play spinoff rather than The Division 3, it is likely that Heartland will be online multiplayer only. While a The Division Heartland campaign isn’t completely impossible, it seems unlikely that Ubisoft would give it away for free. Even if Ubisoft are planning a story behind a multiplayer or battle royale mode for The Division Heartland, they are yet to share details.
The only clue fans have to go on is the brief detail shared by Ubisoft in their announcement. They said, “Heartland is a standalone game that doesn’t require previous experience with the series but will provide an all new perspective on the universe in a new setting.”
So, The Division Heartland likely won’t feature a story as in-depth as its predecessors. But it will further elaborate on the series’ universe and over-arching story. That’s good news for fans.
The Division Heartland setting
Many fans will be asking: where is The Division Heartland set? From Ubisofts brief statement, we expect it will be somewhere entirely new. From the title, “Heartland”, we can deduce the new Tom Clancy game will likely be set in the American Midwest. This is because the area is commonly referred to as the nation’s heartland.
The American Midwest is the part of the United States that isn’t bordered by the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. The US Census Bureau define the following twelve states as making up the American Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. As a result, the game is likely to be set in one or more of these regions.
Since 1959, the geographic centre of the United States has been Butte County, South Dakota. That leads us to believe South Dakota is a strong candidate for The Division Heartland‘s setting.
The Division Heartland gameplay
Will it be a battle royale?
It is highly likely The Division Heartland will focus exclusively on competitive multiplayer and/or a battle royale mode. This way, Ubisoft can profit from microtransactions in a way a campaign mode wouldn’t allow.
Long-time fans of the series may be disappointed by this. But free-to-play microtransaction based online games are increasingly popular with AAA publishers. The success of Call of Duty‘s battle royale mode, Warzone, being case and point. With that in mind, we’d wager that The Division Heartland will be a battle royale game.
That said, don’t expect Ubisoft to depart from the gameplay fundamentals that made The Division 1 & 2 so popular. Heartland will almost certainly retain the third person looter shooter and RPG elements of its predecessors. What’s more, the large scale open world settings of previous games would fit excellently in a The Division themed MMO or battle royale. Even better, the detailed destruction physics of the Snowdrop engine will likely make Heartland more immersive than its potential competitors.
What platforms will The Division Heartland be available for?
As a free-to-play game, it makes sense for Ubisoft to make the game as widely available as possible. That means brining Heartland to not only the PS4 and Xbox One, but also the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Ubisoft have confirmed as much, and have also stated Heartland will be available on “cloud” gaming services, too. This should mean The Division Heartland will be available on PlayStation Now, Google Stadia and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Xbox Game Pass).
PC system requirements
Ubisoft have yet to announce the PC system requirements for Heartland. From an accessibility perspective, don’t expect them to be so high as to exclude players on lower end PCs.
For reference, here are the PC system requirements for The Division 2:
The Division 2: Minimum system requirements – 1080p | 30 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD FX-6350 | Intel Core i5-2500K
- RAM: 8 GM
- GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270 | Nvidia Geforce GTX 670
- VRAM: 2 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11 | 12
The Division 2: Recommended system requirements – 1080p | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X | Intel Core i7-4790
- RAM: 8 GB
- GPU: AMD RX 480 | Nvidia Geforce GTX 970
- VRAM: 4 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11 | 12
The Division 2: High system requirements – 1440p | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | Intel Core i7-6700K
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: AMD RX Vega 56 | Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070
- VRAM: 8 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11 | 12
The Division 2: Elite system requirements – 4K | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X | Intel Core i9-7900X
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: AMD Radeon VII | Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 TI
- VRAM: 11 GB
- DirectX: DirectX 11 | 12
Crossplay
The Division Heartland will support crossplay. Or at the very least, cross-generation play.
Make no mistake, the PlayStation 4 is the most successful home console since the PlayStation 2. Ubisoft would be fools to ignore its 115 million+ players and make Heartland exclusive to the PlayStation 5. With that being the case, The Division Heartland PS4 is likely to be the most popular version of the game.
To maximise its playerbase, Ubisoft needs to make The Division Heartland cross-play, cross-generation, and cross-progression enabled. This will ensure as many people as possible will be able to pick up the game on release. And not only that, but that they’ll be able to play with friends irrespective of platform, too.
All this will be made possible by Ubisoft Connect. Launched in October 2020 as a rebranding of Uplay and Ubisoft Club, Connect bridges the gap between platforms and generations for first-party Ubisoft games. We expect to see it put to good use in Heartland.
Update: The Division Heartland Leak May 15, 2021
Well… It didn’t take long for our first glimpses of Heartland. Though not via an official route, leaks from playtesters found their way online this week. While this isn’t a surprise, it’s clear the leakers don’t care about continuing as playtesters given the NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) they were made to sign to prevent leaks prior to release.
On top of gameplay footage leaked online, a now suspended Twitter user (@SkyLeaks) tweeted a leak of an introductory video by lead designer Taylor Epperly. In the video, Epperly reminds playtesters of the NDAs and asked they “don’t be the one who ruins the surprise” for others. Clearly, Epperly’s efforts to prevent leaks fell on deaf ears.
What did the leaks show?
While the footage that was uploaded online was low-resolution, it did provide 20-minutes of never-before-seen gameplay. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot to see as the gameplay video consisted mainly of the player doing emotes, tweaking settings and testing the controls. Quite why they felt compelled to leak such mundane footage is anyone’s guess – especially when you consider they’ll now lose the opportunity to play any more of the game. This is because the footage was watermarked with a unique code that allows Ubisoft to identify leakers and remove them.
As expected, Heartland is based around the mechanics of previous The Division games. Looting and shooting is still at the centre of the gameplay. But there’s now a stronger emphasis on survival, movement seems faster and there’s a new slide mechanic. A tutorial section tells player’s to keep a consistent supply of filters to survive in Silver Lake – the town where the game is set.
Factions have always been a big part of The Division and “The Pilgirms” are Heartland‘s main enemy group. On top of that, Heartland also features a hub area where players can meet others, shop and talk to NPCs. The leak also shows a video introducing a battle pass.
Finally, the leaked Epperly video confirmed that Heartland has two main modes: a PvE co-op mode called Expedition, and Storm, a 45-player PvEvP mode.
Are you excited for Heartland? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out our other gaming articles…
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Featured Image Credit: Ubisoft
