Is Ubisoft working on a The Division battle royale spin-off?

Finally, just when you thought Ubisoft had come to its senses after canceling a planned battle royale title in Ghost Recon Frontline, rumors suggest that it has another battle royale game in the works.

According to Jeff Grubb in a recent podcast, Ubisoft is working on a standalone battle royale game set in the same universe as The Division. Grubb added that Ubisoft had already dropped the game from its pipeline last year. The studio reportedly decided to pick up the project again following the closure of Hyper Scape. Grubb claims that the battle royale title will have "rogue-like" elements and is Ubisoft's attempt to cash in on the still-strong battle royale craze.

Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds are some of the biggest battle royale games right now. But, as Fall Guys proved, even the ones that came out later - Fall Guys only went free-to-play this year - can carve out a huge chunk of the genre's massive playerbase. If nothing else, you can't blame Ubisoft for trying to get a piece of the humongous battle royale pie.

Grubb's report comes after Ubisoft effectively confirmed that it's tightening its belt due to a lack of profits from exciting titles in the same earnings call where it revealed that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn't coming out until mid-2023.

Ultimately, it feels a little weird that Ubisoft is working on a third The Division spinoff. The Division Resurgence is a free-to-play game and so is The Division: Heartland. Both "might" have battle royale modes or elements. But, if Ubisoft thinks that three The Division spin-offs are better than working on The Division 3, then by all means. We're just hoping that it doesn't end up wasting its time and money on projects that might not pan out as opposed to proven money-makers.