Ubisoft abruptly cancels Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland

Ubisoft has canceled its upcoming free-to-play shooter Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland, the publisher announced on May 15.

The news comes as a shock as studio Red Storm Entertainment spent at least three years working on The Division Heartland and organized multiple betas with players. But, when taking a deep look at Ubisoft's plans, this comes after the developer and publisher canceled three other games in January 2023.

The news also comes on the same day Ubisoft revealed the release date for Assassin's Creed Shadows, the next game of the franchise.

Ubisoft has halted plans to launch The Division Heartland to focus on other projects, which include XDefiant and Rainbow Six.

"After careful consideration, we have made the tough call to halt development on Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, effective immediately," Ubisoft said in a statement to Insider Gaming. "Our priority now is to support the talented team members at our Red Storm Entertainment studio, who will be transitioning to new projects within our company, including XDefiant and Rainbow Six."

Ubisoft originally delivered the news to Red Storm Entertainment staff this Wednesday before the company's earnings call and it's "in line with the increased selectivity of its investments."

The current focus on Ubisoft, still according to its earnings call, is to "regain leadership" in open-world adventures and "expand the footprint" on games-as-a-service (GaaS) experiences.

It's currently unclear whether Ubisoft will shut down studios and promote layoffs on top of halting the development of The Division Heartland. However, this would be expected as the publisher and developer shut down mobile studio Ubisoft London in September 2023 and recently laid off 45 employees in April.

The cancelation of The Division Heartland will certainly put more pressure on XDefiant's developers, as the game is coming out on May 21.

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