The Division: This is When You Can Pre-Load the Game
By Kyle Sledge 26 February 2016
Publisher and developer Ubisoft announces exactly when fans anxious for its forthcoming action-MMO shooter The Division can begin pre-loading the game in its entirety.
It’s no secret that The Division is one of the most anticipated video games of 2016, so fans of Ubisoft’s open world title are almost assuredly chomping at the bit when it comes to finally being able to sink their teeth into the final version of the release. With that in mind, there are definitely gamers out there who have already cleared space on their respective hard drives to make room for it upon availability, so thankfully, developers have officially revealed precisely when pre-loading for the third-person shooter can begin.
According to Ubisoft, those who bought a digital copy of the title on Xbox One will be able to start pre-loading today, March 2, while PC players can have it installed on March 3 via Steam and Uplay. Unfortunately, though, PlayStation 4 fans anxious to have The Division ready to go before its launch next week will have to wait the longest, as pre-loading for Sony’s platform will begin on March 6, at 12:01 AM local time.
Furthermore, Ubisoft also made it known that The Division‘s servers will be switched on at 00:01 AM Australian Eastern Daylight Time on March 8, which comes out to March 7 at 5:00 AM PST / 8:00 AM EST. Taking this into consideration, this means that there will be no pre-release reviews for the game, leaving a lot of fans in the dark as to what can be expected from the action-MMO prior to purchase.
For those fans who weren’t able to take part in The Division‘s open beta, not having a thorough overview of its gameplay quality at launch could dissuade them from pre-loading it or buying it upon release. Could this occur, it would be due to the fact that a lot of gamers rely on publications they trust for accurate details regarding titles’ content before laying their money down. That said, it will definitely be interesting to see sales figures for the game before and after official reviews are posted.
Ubisoft gave grounds for the reviews embargo by saying that it wouldn’t be able to properly populate the servers for reviewers, leaving open the possibility of certain areas not being fully appreciated due to a dearth of players, which is somewhat understandable. After all, with The Division being touted as an action-MMO, its multiplayer elements will be key to its success.
Even though it will be at least several days after The Division‘s release before official reviews start rolling in, Ubisoft has been pretty open about all of the content it plans to include in the base game, such as its map size, its missions, its PvP materials, what kind of enemies will be encountered, etc. With that being the case, fans have the ability to pore over plenty of press releases, clips of gameplay footage, and opinion pieces from the past several months to determine for themselves whether or not pre-loading will be worth it.
The Division is set to release on March 8, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: GameSpot
