E3 2018: The Division 2 releases on 15 March 2019, will have eight-player raids

Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 releases on 15 March 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, promising players “a full year of free story-driven missions, map expansions, and new game features” every three months, as well as eight-player raids to challenge endgame veterans.

The Division 2 takes place seven months after the virus was released in New York City, this time transporting players to a “one-to-one recreation” of Washington D.C. With anarchy in the streets and rumors of a coup circulating, all Division agents have been activated to save the city before it’s too late.

While the gameplay trailer is victim to some awfully artificial voice chat, Ubisoft has made it clear, in both their E3 presentation and in news releases, that they’ve approached The Division 2 with the endgame in mind.

The main campaign “will organically flow into a robust endgame”where, at level 30, players can choose a specialization. They’ve fully redesigned the PvP free-for-all Dark Zone, introduced scalable World Tiers, and have “a complete range of PvP experiences” at launch. Incursions have also been replaced by eight-player Raids to better serve veteran players.

The trailer also reveals some other, interesting tidbits. Obvious changes to locale, loot caches, and skills aside, there’s a moment where the player team encounters an elite NPC that requires some sustained fire. Rather than soaking up the mass of bullets with his chin held high, like all The Division bosses before him, we can see the NPC staggering around as pieces of armor fall away. It’s a nice visual touch that is hopefully one among many steps taken to freshen up the experience for returning players.

Massive Entertainment is taking the lead once again, with support studios being Ubisoft Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Bucharest.