RUMOR: Division Developer Working on a Battle Royale Game

The games industry has grown and prospered… somehow… by playing a game of endless catch-up. One innovative idea explodes into dozens of carbon copies, and the Battle Royale genre appears to be no exception. But if you think the games industry is going to stop at Fortnite and a bunch of indie titles, then I’m afraid you’re sadly mistaken – we’ve only just begun to see the looting of the dead horse that is now the Battle Royale genre.

And it's looking like Ubisoft is going to be the next company to desecrate that corpse. Or, more specifically, Massive, the studio behind The Division.

Now, before you get too excited, remember that this is nothing but an unsubstantiated rumor, taken from an anonymous source that spoke to Swedish game site Games Reactor. But while I normally caution people to take a big ol’ bite of salt before giving credence to these things, this time, I’d say this is a fairly safe bet. Massive is busy with both The Division 2 and the Avatar game, but both of these IP’s would actually be really good settings for a Battle Royale game. So as far as I can see, there are three options:

First, that these games are specifically Battle Royale games – which is unlikely because Avatar has been in development for a long time and The Division 2 has something like a story it needs to keep telling.

Secondly, that they’re making a brand-new game – which I would also call a bit unlikely, because while massive isn’t small (get it?) it’s also not quite so big I would say it’s capable of juggling three projects, unless this battle royale game is fairly small/uses a lot of stolen assets.

Third, and most likely, is that a Battle Royale mode will be included in The Division 2 or Avatar as a separate-yet-attached mode.

But again, this is all speculation. Ubisoft has refused to comment so far, but I imagine it won’t be too long a wait to find out what’s really going on. So get cozy. Grab some popcorn. And let’s wait for the show.