Update: Ubisoft's VP of live operations Anne Blondel released a correction after stating the player numbers for The Division were matching launch numbers. While the game has seen an increase in players since the patch, Blendel has now stated that her previous statement claiming that those numbers were matching the player count The Division enjoyed at launch was a miscommunication.
This was a miscommunication - what I meant to say is the numbers for The Division are trending back in a positive direction.Original article belowThanks to what we’ve seen with patch 1.4 and other updates the team has delivered. What I should have said is, we think it’s possible that The Division follows a similar pattern to Rainbow Six: Siege, which has seen increasing engagement to the point that DAU numbers have equaled those we saw during the launch period.
In what might be the most surprising pieces of news I've seen this week, Ubisoft reports that the active number of daily players is matching the numbers The Division got during its first week of retail release after the release of the rather hefty 1.4 patch which was released back in October.
This patch added an enormous amount of fixes, tweaks, reworks and other additions to the game after months of gathering player feedback. Seriously. Take a look for yourself.
Some players left the game earlier than what we thought, then we had to make that tough call - do we keep providing them with extra content or do we stop everything for a while, settle down, fix everything and then once the game is where it should be, then we start providing more content.A couple of months ago, Ubisoft Massive invited a few players to attend a series of conversations and workshops surrounding The Division at their headquarters in Malmö, Sweden. This task force took part in several workshops and discussions on the state of the game, With all the changes in the 1.4 patch it would seem that Ubisoft Massive listened carefully to the suggestions of the task force, and the The Division community as a whole.-Anne Blondel, VP of live operations at Ubisoft
According to Blondel, the community is now "back to positive mode", stating that Ubisoft Massive has noticed a steady influx of returning players since the release of the patch.
But it does not stop here! Most recently, Ubisoft released the 1.5 update and the Survival expansion for PC and Xbox One (PlayStation 4 players will gain access to the expansion on December 20). More info on that here.
Quick Take
Say what you want about Ubisoft and Ubisoft Massive, they have managed to right the ship on what was turning out to be a very big disappointment due to all the bugs and exploits present in the game at launch. I've not touched the game in ages but the high numbers of fixes coupled with Ubisoft being more than willing to listen to their fans makes me want to give the game another chance.What do you think of the 1.4 patch? Let us know in the comments below!
