A The Division agent looking down a New York street.

The Division Turns One Today (And Ubisoft Has Announced Future Free Content)

What a difference a year makes.  The Division was one of 2016’s most anticipated games and was finally released a year ago today.  And, there’s more to come.

Ubisoft, via the official blog, has marked The Division’s birthday with an announcement of the second year’s content plans with Julian Gerighty, Creative Director at Massive Entertainment.

“The first unnamed expansion will be based on an event system that drives players to activities that feature modifiers, leaderboards, and unique vanity items that will only be available through these activities. In addition, Gerighty says the team has plans to include a loadout feature that will let players switch efficiently and quickly between their favorite gear combinations, as well as a system to mark a player’s feats.”

On the second expansion, the blog post added: “The second expansion is still far enough away that the team doesn’t want to comment on it, and while Gerighty stresses that it will be “more content-focused”, new story missions won’t necessarily be a part of the package. ‘Story missions are tricky, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have narrative content,’ he says. ‘We can’t really deliver story missions that will fit into the RPG aspects of the game in a simple way. So we’re not going to be doing the classic main mission type of thing, but narrative content is something that we are definitely looking at.”

While the first update will essentially be having layers replay old content in new ways, the second update will bring more to the table and offer an expansion on the overall experience.

So the first update will get people replaying old content in new ways and ticking off achievements, while the second will bring new stuff. Sure sure.

The blog post also confirms that from March 9 to March 16, all active Division players will receive 200 premium credits and a premium celebration emote as a “thank you” for being a part of the one-year milestone. Additionally, from March 9 to March 11, players will have a 2X multiplier on high-value target rewards, and on March 11, there will be a 2X multiplier on field proficiency caches.

As someone who fell in love with The Division on release then left the party a few months later, I’m intrigued to see that Ubisoft bring to the table over the next 12 months.