The Division to Receive Two Free Expansions in Year 2
By Boston Blake 09 March 2017
As Tom Clancy’s The Division nears its one-year mark, developer Massive is looking forward to what’s next for the cover-based shooter game. One of the most exciting plans on the horizon for The Division is the release of two free expansions for all The Division players in the game’s second year.
Speaking with Game Rant, creative director for The Division, Julian Gerighty, revealed the developer’s plan to release two free expansions for all The Division players, with the first one coming sometime this summer. Gerighty said:
“We are looking to reengage the players in light of the first year celebration for The Division by recommitting ourselves to the game in the upcoming 12 months. We will be delivering two separate expansion packs for the game free to everybody in the next 12 months.”
The first year celebration mentioned by Gerighty is a special livestream event planning for Wednesday, March 8th. During the livestream, the team at Massive will provide details about what gamers can expect in the game’s second year, including what will be coming with each of the free expansions.
While Gerighty couldn’t go into too many details about the expansions, he did provide a few teasers about what’s coming with the first expansion planned for the summer. Gerighty said:
“The first expansion pack that we’ll be focusing on, which will be a pack for summer this year, is really going to continue this philosophy that we put into place with the 1.4 update. It’s a philosophy of generosity and rewarding players for spending time in the game and playing and driving them to player-driven activities where they can craft their own unique stories. That’s something we really, really believe in.”
The expansion will focus on adding new events and opportunities for players to experience PvE content in The Division in new ways both solo and with friends. Gerighty said his team’s focus is to provide new challenges for gamers and encourage new ways to play the game. Gerighty went on to describe these events and activities, saying:
“One of the biggest pieces of new content is an events structure, which will reward players for participation, completion, and competition within a playlist of activities that have a modifier. Basically, taking a set number of activities within the game and adding a spin to them that makes players see them in a whole different light and play them in a whole different way.”
Gerighty was quick to mention that the focus will be on PvE content, but that expanding on the current set of PvP activities isn’t off the table. That said, it seems the team at Massive wants to focus on the replayability of The Division by giving gamers new ways to experience the PvE content already in the title. Gerighty said:
“This is really PvE focused, at least at the beginning. We may open it up to more activities afterwards, but at the beginning we really want to use all of the activities that are open to everybody. It’s a free update, a free expansion, it really is delivering more activities to the greatest number of players in the community.”
Gerighty shied away from revealing any details about new areas or any extensions to The Division’s storyline. That said, more information will be available during the livestream and in the coming weeks and months.
Of course, there are many gamers who are hoping to see new areas. One area that gamers have been interested in for many months is Central Park. After players were able to exit the game boundaries to explore the area and then find references to Central Park while data mining, it’s been a hot discussion topic on Reddit and in the game’s forums.
With Destiny 2 planned for later this year, the team at Massive will need to provide some very impressive content over the summer and throughout the next year for The Division if it hopes to compete with Bungie’s upcoming sequel. It will be interesting to see what the developer reveals during the livestream tomorrow.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
