While the most anticipated games from each E3 normally come from one of the big Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo conferences, Ubisoft this year saved its big reveal for its own press conference.
Continuing with its “scare the crap out of everyone” presentation style established in announcements for Watch Dogs, Ubisoft used the example of a pandemic to show how “fragile” our society is. After setting up the scare, the publisher followed up by announcing Tom Clancy’s The Division, a new cooperative multiplayer shooter coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next year.
The game is an “open-world RPG” in which players will take on the role of a secret agent in New York City just 3 weeks after a pandemic has caused society to collapse. The landscape is ruined, with looters and “clans” vying for control of the streets.
A gameplay demo during the Ubisoft presentation showed that teaming up is heavily encouraged, and that players will also be able to participate in the game via a tablet app. PVP elements between rival secret agents were also teased near the end of the demo.
With all that said, The Division seems similar to Defiance, the shooter/mmo/TV show that has failed to take off in a big way this year. Aside from the third-person perspective, gameplay in The Division also seems similar to another of the most-anticipated games of next year: Bungie’s Destiny. Both feature multiplayer, open-world gameplay and seem to focus on Borderlands-style loot-seeking.