During Ubisoft’s much-hyped unveiling of The Division two years ago, you may recall that the gameplay demo featured integration with a mobile companion app, allowing a member of the team to demonstrate how players could interact with the apocalyptic warfare from smartphones and tablets. Alas, it’s understood the developer has opted to can the second screen functionality for fear it would “create an imbalance” to gameplay.
News comes via IGN, with the outlet reporting that the creative team at Ubisoft Massive believed the companion app only got in the way of development, and that the final product wouldn’t have performed as well outside of a controlled environment.
In theory, the app itself was quiet interesting, allowing mobile users to coordinate and plot battle tactics with their PC and console comrades. For The Division, this would have involved controlled an airborne drone, giving those on tablet and smartphones the best view of the post-pandemic arena, before reigning down chaos from the sky. Still, news that the feature would have struck an imbalance to the action-RPG is hardly surprising, and rather than nerfing the functionality, Ubisoft has decided to app the mobile integration altogether.
With a release date pegged for March 8, 2016, Ubisoft Massive is beginning to drum up hype for its hotly-anticipated apocalyptic shooter. After slating a December beta exclusively for Xbox One, yesterday brought word of The Division‘s expansive, $160 Collector’s Edition along with the seemingly mandatory season pass, promising a string of post-launch content for up to 12 months after release.
