Ubisoft cancels another free-to-play game that they had been working on for over three years, before its release

The problem with trailing in the industry is that you always arrive when the party is about to end. It was the case for those who saw, after ‘Avatar’, that they could make movies in 3D like crazy, or those who believed that if Netflix could have a decent streaming, they could too, giving rise to the bubble that we all know now. The latest to join the bandwagon of “things that could have gone well a couple of years ago, but not now” has been Ubisoft. Yes, once again.

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It’s normal to see the success of ‘Fortnite’ or ‘Fall guys’ and think “Hey, why don’t we do the same? A free MMO where we earn money through the season pass and selling different cosmetic upgrades”. The problem is that you’re not the only one thinking that, of course, and with the market flooded with free MMOs that no one is playing, companies are starting to backtrack.

Ubisoft, in particular, has canceled ‘The Division Heartland’, a game that was based on the famous video game saga which in turn is based on Tom Clancy’s literary franchise. The game was announced on May 6, 2021, so it has been blown up after at least three years of development. In fact, the production was so advanced that they even set up closed-door test matches.

But, as Naughty Dog did with ‘The last of us online’ or Microsoft with ‘Redfall’ (which, at least, was released), the studio has decided that it is better to throw away the money and effort of so many months rather than making a fool of themselves and trying their luck in the current free-to-play MMO chaos. If you are fans of the saga, don’t worry, because there are already two other ‘The division’ games in preparation that, hopefully, will have better luck.

Let it serve as a lesson: following the one who is in first place by copying their strategy usually doesn’t yield good results… and people realize it right away.

Tom Clancy's The Division DOWNLOAD