The Division 2 Sales Disappoint Ubisoft, Considered a Commercial Failure

the division 2 sales

With the first The Division game, Ubisoft managed to hit its niche as it offered (kind of) the same gameplay look found in titles like Destiny. When a sequel was announced, most assumed that The Division 2 sales would be a home run for the publisher, but it seems less than a year since its launch, Ubisoft isn’t happy where it is now.

Update: The Ubisoft conference call is now available in their archive, here is the official quote stated during the call.

Our latest two triple AAA released underperformed commercially versus our anticipation. Additionally, while The Division 2 was critically acclaimed, Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s critical reception was very disappointing and ended up significantly below our expectations. In the end, we did not fully deliver on both games’ potential.

They then discussed the drops in their net profit by lowering their expectations for both titles along with a number of delays.

Original Story

As part of a press release announcing Ubisoft’s updated financial targets, the publisher confirmed that The Division 2 sales were a disappointment, stating, “A sharp downward revision in the revenues expected from Ghost Recon Breakpoint and, to a lesser extent, The Division 2.”

To further add fuel to the fire, French journalist Chloé Woitier tweeted a bunch of stuff from a Ubisoft press conference call regarding the publisher’s financials.

Here are translations of some of his tweets (via Reddit user Indy201):

Ongoing conference: The Division 2 is also part of Ubisoft’s commercial failures.

Even if this is the case, Ubisoft is still supporting the game hard, and we just got Episode 2 earlier this month, and there’s a slate of content set to appear in the game even up to 2020, so The Division 2 players are sure to play something new.

Are you surprised b this news or not really? What do you contribute to The Division 2’s low sales?

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LordCancer Kain
LordCancer Kain
4 years ago

Someone tell Ubisoft their modern copy and paste releases are empty and soulless trash, a far cry from the purple swirl of old. Make better games Ubisoft.

Helghast
Helghast
Reply to  LordCancer Kain
4 years ago

I thought The Division 2 was well received and the first was popular enough wasn’t it?

jameslara
Reply to  Helghast
4 years ago

it was, it got great reviews but according to ubisoft (story updated) it underperformed to what they wanted

Hates bad writers.
Hates bad writers.
Reply to  jameslara
4 years ago

^the only sign you need to know the reviews probably weren’t above board. Worse, they shoved a review through the pipes to get it done. Kinda like the development of the game.

You just can’t rush art. It cannot be done. Makes for long term instability.

Hates bad writers.
Hates bad writers.
Reply to  Helghast
4 years ago

Reviews are often a bad thing to go off of. Have been for many years. These people get flown out for exclusive stuff. Given free crap. Free copies of the game (multiples). There’s so much stuff guiding their hand in these reviews they can’t be trusted. If you break the game down and really critique the mechanics, you probably have a 5/10. Functioning, but soulless. It’s a game for the sake of one rather than a work of passion. Games being art makes perpetual releases bland in the eyes of most consumers over time. Take a look at Marvel movies for a fantastic picture of how this works. No matter how good the content people just get tired of it. Long gone are the days where a dev makes a game, it pans out, and they move on and come back when they have a passionate idea to start a sequel. Now it’s release X, immediately start work on Y, wonder why Z is received poorly 4 or 5 years down the line. As much as we are dealing with businesses here to make money, they want mass production like other industries to keep profit margins rolling. It just doesn’t work with art, long term.

BlueCollarCritic
BlueCollarCritic
Reply to  LordCancer Kain
4 years ago

Copy and paste is not the problem. If Ubisoft had used copy and paste for both DIVISION and WILDLANDS when creating DIVISION 2 and BREAKPOINT both games would have done a lot better then they did. The problem was that Ubisoft tried to re-invent select systems/mechanics within each game and these changes resulted in their failures. DIVISION 2 had far fewer changes then did Breakpoint and that’s why DIVISION 2’s failure was not as bad as Breakpoints failure.

DIVISION started off bad but by its last update the game had a very large abd very dedicate player base that was ripe for a sequel. All Ubisoft had to do was copy and paste DIVSION 1 as of update 1.7 and make a new map with anew story and a few new small changes and it would have been a success. Same applies to Wildlands and Breakpoint. WIldlands sequel should have been an easy win but one or more person(s) in the chain of command at Ubisoft made several very BAD design change decisions and effectively broke the game.

Personally I think persons involved with each game that made these poor design change decisions should be fired or at the very least moved to a position where they can not make any more bad design decisions.

jameslara
Reply to  BlueCollarCritic
4 years ago

I didn’t think the Division 2 was bad at all. Sure it lacked some of the best features from 1, and who knows maybe they’ll patch them in eventually, but overall it was a solid game.
It’s weird though, Ubisoft aren’t the only culprit with changing up their MP sequels, as a lot of stuidos tend to cut features that fans loves away in favor of less.

Breakpoint, man that is a game I regret playing. I should have known from the Beta, but man IDk how someone can mess that one up. Like you said, it should have been an easy win.

BlueCollarCritic
BlueCollarCritic
Reply to  BlueCollarCritic
3 years ago

Now that its been over a year since DIVISION 2 released we now know that Ubisoft executive Chief creator Serge Hascoet was the man behind a lot of Ubisofts problems. This man derailed many of Ubisofts games that very well might have otherwise seen better success. Who knows what level of interference this man had with The Division And Wildlands sequels that caused both to fail as they did. We most likely will never know how much damage this man did to these titles but its still the fault of the head of Ubisoft for allowing this man to continue operating as he did when it was clear a long time ago that he was a problem. Jason Schriers article about the behind the scenes at Ubisoft is an eye opener and it explains a lot for those of us who never could under stand how Ubisoft could so royally screw up the sequels for there 2 best selling games ever.

Limit Break
Limit Break
4 years ago

It is ALMOST as if people are sick and tired of shit like this. Hmmmm

andrewsqual
andrewsqual
4 years ago

Awwww look at the poor wittle Ubisoft. Are you starting to feel the noose around your neck yet? How many times do I have to tell you I don’t play, even try for free for 5 seconds, any of your garbage online focused or single player with forced online elements, games??? You wanted this. Now deal with it. Delay all the games you want, I still won’t touch them ever after pointless readjusting.

Maz Tyo
Maz Tyo
4 years ago

Steam Is ‘Unrealistic’ For Developers, Says Ubisoft Executive
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The Division 2 Sales Disappoint Ubisoft, Considered a Commercial Failure

u see the connection there?lmao

Hates bad writers.
Hates bad writers.
Reply to  Maz Tyo
4 years ago

Plenty of other reasons too.

CaptainAmericasBeard
CaptainAmericasBeard
4 years ago

I’ll gladly buy The Division 2 when it drops in price a bit more. It’s almost at impulse buy price for me.

It’s on sale for $27.99 Canadian on PSN…. if it was like $19.99 Canadian, I might have done it. That price is tempting.

JesusChrist
JesusChrist
Reply to  CaptainAmericasBeard
4 years ago

I wouldnt download a ubisoft game even if it was for free.

Hates bad writers.
Hates bad writers.
4 years ago

Well, took a while but I’m proven right. Again. UBI been slackin, lately. No substance to the crap they squeeze out.

Placebo_Obecalp
4 years ago

Division 1 had a great setting, great visuals with the snow and New York at night, more importantly it had a really well thought out and unique storyline (fleshed out by the memories and voice mails that were actually enjoyable to find and listen to). And after a year or so it had new game modes like the underground and Survival that gave coming back time and again a real purpose.

Division 2 had none of the above and also visually it seems to be a step back from Division 1.

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