Three years after announcing it as a "whole new perspective" for its long-term Division series, Ubisoft has quietly pulled the plug on Division: Heartland.

When Division: Heartland was first announced, the details were inadequate, beyond being a free-to-play "stand-alone game that doesn't require previous experience in the series."We've taken a closer look at it in 2023 when it was exhibited as an extraction shooter with survival elements set in a small town in Central America. Ubisoft said developer Red Storm "is taking a testing and learning approach to building this game," adding that player feedback from the ongoing closed beta testing

we never had a chance to try Division: Heartland on our own, but now we never have.With all the hullabaloo in big Assassin's Creed Shadows revealed today, Ubisoft revealed in a much more modest way, as a memo to its 2023-24 earnings report, that it "canceled the game as part of our ongoing efforts to streamline operations and adapt to evolving market trends.""

" in line with the increased selectivity of that investment, Ubisoft has decided to stop developing its Heartland division and has repositioned its resources to larger opportunities such as xdefiant and Rainbow Six," the company said.

Rainbow Six Siege is Ubisoft's continued winner, but it's interesting to put such a weight on xdefiant's shoulders. Despite the rough introduction in 2021, it looks like XDefiant might be pretty good, but whether it will lead to a sustainable long-term audience is a very big open question. On the other hand, Xdefiant has one big advantage over Heartland: 1.The pre-season release is scheduled for 5/21.

It also looks like the development of the Heartland is not going particularly smoothly — it was originally supposed to be out sometime in 2021-22 — and it's no exaggeration to say that those on the front of the department have changed because of that goal being further behind. Division 2 is still chugging together, Division Revival mobile games are expected to arrive later this year, and full-fledged Division 3 is in the current works, too. Maybe that's enough division for now.