The Division franchise’s tenth anniversary celebrations are almost upon us, and that would make 2026 an important, poignant year to begin with. But it seems Ubisoft is going all in for this momentous occasion. Just last week, we had the series’ executive producer, Julian Gerighty, talking about The Division 2‘s upcoming Survivors mode and even commenting on the scope of The Division 3 – a game I now feel like we may see initial glimpses of this year. However, there’s even more on the way, as at the FPSDay X event in Japan, Ubi unveiled an anniversary event for The Division 2 and let players loose on an all-new Realism Mode that will let you experience the looter shooter “like never before.” Plus, crossovers with other Tom Clancy series are on the way, and marketing for what appears to be an all new edition of The Division 1 has been spotted, too.
While there’s always plenty of talk about how valuable series like Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Rainbow Six Siege are to Ubisoft, the impact The Division has made over the years should also be acknowledged. While The Division 2 has had its ups and downs, the commitment to support it has remained high. Even though it’s the original co-op game that celebrates a big birthday this year, TD2 is also turning seven around the same time. I forget how old that game actually is… Despite its age, and the hiccups it’s faced along the way, there’s a lot in the pipeline for it while we wait for The Division 3, and Realism Mode is going to be the next big beat.
Attendees at FPSDay X have had the chance to play this new mode for themselves, and the Ubisoft Japan channel has posted a video outlining what it entails. In short, it is a hardcore mode that features “action-focused combat with reduced time-to-kill and realistic weapon damage based on bullet calibre,” according to creative director Yannick Banchereau. Immersion and difficulty have been cranked up too, thanks to “reduced UI, limited HUD, no health regeneration, scarce ammo, and longer skill cooldowns.”
“Realism Mode is your chance to experience The Division 2 like never before – raw and unforgiving,” Banchereau summarizes. In a panel at the FPSDay event, which was captured in the video further down this article by attendee Darren Jones, game designer Raul-Sebastian Birnoschi also confirms that Realism Mode will require you to create a new character due to the removal of a lot of the RPG elements of The Division 2. There are also no XP or level gains in this mode.
Realism Mode sounds great, but there are a couple of catches. For a start, this mode will only be available for the duration of the special anniversary mini season which begins in March, so it won’t be sticking around forever. Plus, it’ll be exclusive to the Warlords of New York expansion, so you’ll need to have access to that DLC in order to play it.
Something all players can experience, though, is the new anniversary crossover that’s taking place with three other Tom Clancy series. Outfits based on characters from Rainbow Six Siege X, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon can be unlocked through the “Anniversary Pass” – while full details haven’t been revealed yet, I’m speculating that there will be free and paid tracks for this pass, just like we saw in the Payday collab last year.
During the panel, Banchereau also confirms that during the anniversary season, events will spring up in The Division 2 that are based on some of the “mechanics and ideas” found in the first game.
Ubisoft has also confirmed that, once the anniversary season concludes, The Division 2 will be getting another year of support. Details on what Year 8 entails will be revealed in March around the time of the anniversary celebrations.
While not mentioned in its official communications, it also appears that a new Definitive Edition of The Division 1 will be released as part of this milestone birthday as well. As was posted by Domen Gaming on X, the FPSDay event apparently featured a promotional poster for this new edition. There’s no concrete information on what this version of the game would entail, but bundling together all of its main expansions and additional DLC will likely be a core component.
If you pair all of that together with my prediction that something will be revealed about The Division 3 (whether that’s a mere morsel of new information about the game, or potentially a debut trailer and release window) then this year is going to be a momentous one for fans of the franchise.
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