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The Division Resurgence

The Division on-the-go! - The Division Resurgence Interview with Producer Pierre-Hughes Puechlong

We spoke with Ubisoft to learn more about the new mobile variant of the popular action-shooter series.

Audio transcription

"Hello everyone and welcome back to another Gamereactor interview.
Today we have an interesting one for you because I'm here with Pierre from Ubisoft to talk all about The Division Resurgence."

"Now this is a rather interesting interview because we're talking about the game about four or five days before it officially makes its arrival on mobile platforms.
So this is going to be a really hot one, a really timely one.
And hopefully Pierre's going to be able to answer some really burning questions we might have in relation to it."

"So, first of all, Pierre, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, of course.
It's a pleasure to be able to be with you.
The first question I have for you is talking a little bit about the development cycle of the game because I've been following The Division Resurgence for some time."

"I think back in 2023 I actually managed to go hands-on with it at an event somewhere around somewhere.
And I bring that up because obviously video games take a long while to make.
But how has the development time, how has the time that it's taken to get The Division Resurgence ready for the launch next week?
How have you used that time and evolved and grown the game to the position where it is now?
Yeah. Hello, Ben. Hello, everyone. It's very great to be able to explain a bit where we stand."

"And indeed, we have had the opportunity to perform new betas.
The last one were in September and December 2025.
And we have been very lucky to have many of you joining our beta because it helped us collecting tons of valuable feedback and essentially gave us the opportunity to make the game even better."

"So when it launches on the 31st on the App Store and Google Play, you're going to be able to download it and have a lot of fun.
So thank you for those of you who joined the betas.
And tell me then as well, because obviously The Division Resurgence, the big key part of this, is that you're taking The Division formula and you're putting it on mobile devices."

"So what makes The Division formula so ideal for mobile platform?
Well, first of all, I think the most important part to keep in mind is as a player, whether you like to play with your mobile phone on your touchscreen, or if you want to play with your favorite game controller, you're going to be able to do that on The Division Resurgence."

"And that's something that was very important for us.
And it's just one example, but how to bring an experience coming from PC and console to mobile and make it accessible for a broad diversity of players.
And just to take another example, for those of you who are familiar with The Division, you generally try to get cover to avoid the enemies."

"Well, in the case of The Division Resurgence, you can do that manually.
You can do that on your touchscreen or your game controller.
But we also included an auto cover mode if it makes your experience better, if you prefer to play like that."

"And it's just an example of how we tried and did our best to make the experience totally relevant on mobile and comfortable and smooth.
And what was that like then, you know, that process of taking The Division, which, again, the game works with controllers."

"You've designed it in such a way that you can use your favorite controller to play the game.
But what was the process of taking The Division gameplay and fitting it to the touchscreen control setup?
Did it work smoothly?
Was there anything you had to massively overhaul to make it fit?
Well, we simply adapted it, and there is no way around that."

"We made it work.
And again, the most important part for us was to benefit from the feedback from all the players.
To take another example, for example, to some extent, you can even customize the experience where the buttons, the skills you can use in the game can be displayed on your screen."

"Just, again, to make sure that the game adapts to how you would like to control it and not the other way around.
So it took simply our – sorry, I'm losing my words.
Essentially, what we did to make it work is test and test and make sure we had the players part of the process all the time."

"And it worked.
And we are so happy that you are going to be able to join us in a few days.
Now, The Division games, there's always a core storyline to follow at the heart, and then obviously it branches off into different ways that you can continue to make the experience your own."

"Talking about that core storyline in The Division Resurgence, what should players be expecting from this?
How long should they be expecting to put into the game to be able to reach the so-called credits, shall we say?
What can we expect from The Division Resurgence storyline?
Well, the great part of The Division Resurgence is if you're a fan, you won't be lost."

"The game happens between the events of TD1 and TD2 for the most of it.
And so it's a canon experience.
It's part of the story of The Division overall.
But if you're not a fan, if it's your first time, you're more than welcome."

"You don't need to be a fan to enjoy it.
And anyway, whether you're a fan or not, when you're going to start the game in the first few seconds, the first thing is you're going to have to go through a little boot camp to make sure that as an agent of The Division, you know to shoot, you know to crouch, you know to take cover, and, you know, you take your marks and make sure you control everything."

"And overall, as a player of the – as a fan of The Division, you're going to also have the opportunity to reconnect with some of the elements you are familiar with.
But again, you don't have to do that."

"You don't need to know The Division to enjoy it.
You mentioned there the connection that the game has between – with the wider The Division universe being set between the two sort of core games that are currently available."

"How closely did you work with the wider The Division team to make sure that this felt like the natural – or a natural step in the wider The Division universe?
And, you know, are there any gameplay or design elements that you wanted to say, you know, we've got to make sure that we get that into The Division Resurgence, or potentially some ones that you looked at and thought, the console players, the PC players love that, but perhaps we need to adjust it to make it fit The Division Resurgence?
Well, there are so many things that have been absolutely amazing to develop around the game."

"I could speak hours of that.
But I guess the first thing we want to share with the players is that, first of all, The Division Resurgence is a vast open world with high-quality graphics."

"And once you're done with the tutorial, with the first mission, with your first time on the game, you're going to be able to explore the city of New York in our post-apocalyptic environment.
And when I say you're going to be able to explore it, I mean, you can do it alone."

"You can do it with your friends.
You can do it with people you are going to meet in the game.
And because it's part of the franchise as well, you can play all the missions in co-op if you want, but you don't have to."

"You can play alone as well.
In the open world, you're going to be able to face multiple activities, whether it's about saving that civilian or helping them gathering supplies or trying to take control of an area of the city."

"And you're going to have the opportunity to, again, play so many missions.
And if you are up for it, you can also enjoy some PVP or PVPV with the Dark Zone, which is our little map where you're going to have the highest level of challenge, but also the best rewards about the game."

"All of that on mobile and it's free.
And it's on Tuesday next week.
And tell me then a little bit about the way that you've approached progression and customization and build crafting, because that's a very key part of the Division, well, universe in general."

"Oh, yeah.
So the Division Reservance is massively multiplayer online, right?
So you're going to have the opportunity to, thanks to all the activities I was mentioning before and some more, to loot, to craft, to customize your character, to upgrade your items, to upgrade the upgrades of your items as well, if I may."

"And depending on your play style, because there is not like a forced path, there are several ways of playing.
You pick your character class, which comes with their own different skill trees that you can upgrade as well."

"And you can change that any time.
If you realize you want to play differently, you are not locked.
You can either create a new character or change the specialization of the one you already created and so on and so forth."

"So, yes, there is a massive opportunity for you to make the game, your own experience, the way you want it.
And then you mentioned a moment ago, obviously, the way that the game is quite accessible, being on mobile, anyone can pick it up."

"How is that?
How have you taken that in mind and approached the monetization of the Division Reserves?
What can we expect on that from?
Well, like I was saying, the game is entirely free."

"You can play as much as you want.
The content is not locked, per se, beyond any form of monetization.
Of course, if some special items, for example, some specific cosmetics are of interest for you, you are going to have the opportunity as well to improve your experience."

"But the game is free.
You don't have any time limit.
You will be able to play anytime, anywhere, alone or with your friends, no matter what, for free."

"And obviously, there's quite a large player base who like the Division games.
And that's something that we've seen recently with the resurgence of the Division 2 and how many people have returned to that game following the influx of content."

"So for the people who are maybe looking at the Division Resurgence from the outset and thinking, you know, I love the PC and console games.
Is this a game for me?
What would you say to convince them to try out the Division Resurgence?
Well, the first thing is, actually, it's very easy to download."

"So just try it and make yourself your opinion.
You will just like it.
But the game is rich.
If you like complex gameplay with the ability to fine-tune your build and to develop your skills and to find the best min-max ratio, you are going to have that opportunity."

"The game is very deep, especially around build crafting, especially around all the RPG pursuits you would have.
But if from time to time what you like is hoping to do a quick session as well, that's totally for you."

"If your style is more about playing as a Bulwark specialization and just get your shotgun, your shield, and defend the civilians around you, you can totally do that as well.
So it's really about what is your play style and not about what you were enjoying before that game."

"And there's a final question then, Pierre, to wrap this up.
Obviously, launch is almost here.
We're right on the cusp of the arrival of The Division Resurgence.
But I'm assuming this is just the start of the plan."

"So what does the future look like for the game?
What's your overall roadmap for The Division Resurgence?
Well, I can't wait that we're able to share all of that with our players.
We have a lot to come in the future."

"We're going to be sharing more as soon as we can.
But on the short term, first of all, join us, enjoy the game, have fun, and please go talk to us.
We are available through our channels on Discord."

"So if you want to meet with us and share feedback and just join the community, you are more than welcome to do that.
We'll be very happy, as we've been doing so far with our previous beta as well, to talk directly to you."

"Brilliant. Well, stay tuned for more from The Division Resurgence as we've been talking about in this interview.
The game will launch on March 31st, which is perhaps when you will see this interview."

"Stay tuned for that.
And otherwise, yeah, we'll have plenty more about the game.
And no doubt, Pierre will have plenty more to share about the game.
So stay tuned to your local game rector region for all the information and more on The Division Resurgence."

"Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you all on the next interview."

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