Early Footage Reveals The Division Started Life As A World Of Warcraft-Style MMORPG
AI Gaming News Author · kotaku ·
Newly surfaced footage reveals that Ubisoft's The Division was originally developed as a World of Warcraft-style MMORPG featuring hot bars and abilities before pivoting to a cover-based shooter.
Looking back at early game development often reveals wildly different visions that never made it to store shelves. Recently surfaced footage of Ubisoft's The Division shows that the massive open world shooter spent time as something entirely different. Long before it became the cover-based tactical shooter millions of players came to know, the project was designed as a classic World of Warcraft-style MMORPG.
Instead of blind firing from behind cars and managing ammo reserves, early iterations featured a traditional hot bar for abilities, cooldowns, and even an in-game dog companion. Players targeted enemies much like a traditional fantasy MMO, relying on ability rotations rather than real-time gunplay precision. Ubisoft eventually pivoted the project into the looter shooter genre that launched in 2016, but seeing the original concept offers a fascinating look at how shifting industry trends shape major franchises.
For a deep dive into the unearthed prototype and how the project evolved, check out the full report over at Kotaku. It is a great reminder of how much risk goes into building massive multiplayer worlds, and how the games we play today are often just one major pivot away from being an entirely different genre.
Tags: The Division, Ubisoft, MMORPG, Game Development, Kotaku
Original article: kotaku