XDefiant gets massive post-launch dev boost after The Division cancellation

Despite having taken a few pit stops for punctures and failures, XDefiant is about to limp over the line to activation. 

But like Lightning McQueen coming back out after his retirement race, XDefiant's problems appear to be behind it, and it might be thanks to the new pit crew.

After The Division Heartland was shut down, Ubisoft has confirmed that XDefiant will receive a boost in dev support as the Tom Clancey crew is transferred over.

The Division Heartland devs are bolstering XDefiant

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Ubisoft confirmed that The Division Heartland, a free-to-play third-person shooter first revealed in 2021, has been cancelled.

The publishers don't seem to be in the habit of forcing more layoffs in this industry, which has been gutted over the last two years and has instead moved the developers who were on Heartland over to its other shooter franchises.

In its financial report, Ubisoft said, "In line with the increased selectivity of its investments, Ubisoft has decided to stop development on The Division Heartland and has redeployed resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six."

XDefiant is set to launch within the week, which means the dev support will be poured into the live-service model and post-launch content.

XDefiant promises a wealth of post-launch support

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Life after the launch of XDefiant has already been outlined, as Mark Rubin has promised "a new map per month" will come to the title until there is a time when the map pool is boiling over.

The Heartland devs might even get to bring over some of their axed work to XDefiant, as factions from other Ubisoft franchises will make up the in-game characters (Ghost Recon, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs, and The Division so far).

Although The Division characters are already in the Cleaners faction, Heartland could eventually get its own faction.

If XDefiant can capture the attention it did during its first beta test, there might be no stopping the title from being the next big FPS game - especially now that its dev team is much larger.