It’s time Ubisoft develop The Division 3

After reading about season nine for The Division 2, I felt nostalgic. The Division 2 isn’t a looter shooter I play often, but when I do I devote an unhealthy number of hours in a short time. I thought about playing again – even starting a third character – but I remembered most of the tiny number of players remaining were completing endgame activities in New York or Washington D.C., on the two highest difficulties. If I tried matchmaking for missions, I wouldn’t find anyone, and matchmaking is my favorite part of The Division 2. I realized Ubisoft should make The Division 3.

Anyone who enjoys looter shooters can’t deny it’s a great game now. Some may have an aversion toward the third-person perspective, but the mission design, loot frequency, build possibilities, challenging content, and endgame have come together very nicely. It doesn’t feel like typical Ubisoft games that include countless, frivolous quests. Most content works together to help you find loot or increase your level. Some of it feels like a grind — typical of any looter shooter — but the result of farming or min-maxing is worth it. The problem with The Division 2 at this moment is limited matchmaking. If you’re playing earlier content, people aren’t searching for those missions, so you’ll have to run them by yourself. It’s an adequate way to play, but The Division 2 is, without question, the best at allowing players to play nearly anything together, and it suffers without that possibility.

I miss matchmaking for missions and anticipating what kind of players I’d meet. Sometimes no one completed the mission, other times I helped everyone through, other times I’m carried. I miss witnessing players assist each other. I remember playing an endgame mission for the first time and two of the three players taught me sequences and mechanics with improvised communication using gunshots, emotes, and whatever else we could think of. I recall assisting three players through The Summit – a 100 floor skyscraper that’s like a wave-based mode – all the way to the final level. Because matchmaking is almost limitless, there are as many opportunities to create moments with random people. But these occasions now happen infrequently because players are focused on a few pieces of content and the player count shrank. A new Division would remedy that, and I have a great idea.

Keep everything that’s worked in The Division 2. Don’t change it. Instead, focus on making everything we’re doing now feel original. Ubisoft can accomplish that by bringing The Division to the west coast. We’ve had two games on the east coast – important locations, for sure – but it’s time to answer the question: How did this pandemic affect the west coast? Specifically Los Angeles, San Francisco or both. The story could be set parallel to The Division 2. As The Division is working on finding out what’s happening in D.C., and fighting the Black Tusk, devastating situations are happening in L.A. or San Francisco. We’d have new characters to meet, new locations and landmarks for missions, new dark zones, new weapons, and we wouldn’t have to worry that the Black Tusk were defeated in The Division 2 – or at least severely weakened. They could remain the ultimate bad guy since they theoretically also operate on the west coast. And with the Series X and PS5, it might be possible to involve both cities like Warlords of New York.

All this may sound like a glorified expansion, and I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that, but we’ve seen many franchises try to reinvent their wheel after finding success. Ubisoft Massive has spent a lot of time repairing and polishing The Division 2’s formula. With a game so big, it’s never going to be perfect, but it would be better to take what they’ve learned and copy and paste it into a new game; then they can focus on making the PvE and PvP feel fresh with new missions, locations, characters, story beats, and weapons. The benefit is a large influx of players who’d likely stay because they’re playing successful concepts transferred from The Division 2.

If Ubisoft announced The Division 3, fans and skeptics would pay attention. But if Ubisoft gave the public a preview that feels as polished as The Division 2, they would recover lots of lost players. I wouldn’t say they would pre-order it, but at least people would be intrigued and look forward to its release. It’s worth a shot.

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