In a surprising announcement just a week after teasing the bright future of Ubisoft's The Division franchise, Julian Gerighty has announced that he's left Massive Entertainment to join Battlefield Studios. It's an interesting time for both franchises as Battlefield 6 has seemingly found itself in a sort of slump after an impressive, while The Division has once again begun to surge with new content planned for 2026. With a major voice of The Division franchise jumping over to Battlefield, it'll be interesting to see if these trajectories change course at all.
2026 is a milestone year for Ubisoft's The Division franchise, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. After launching The Division 2 in 2019, the game has added expansions, seasonal content, and hosted limited-time events, though it was believed that post-launch support would dry up in the years following Warlords of New York. However, a dedicated team managed to keep the lights on and soon, The Division 2 saw a major resurgence of players, causing the team to develop new seasons as well as the Battle for Brooklyn DLC. On the horizon, the anticipated Survivors experience is being worked on as well as a brand-new game.
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The Division Franchises Loses Its Boss to EA
The future of The Division appears to be very bright, though the franchise will now have to carry on without one of its biggest voices. Division franchise boss Julian Gerighty announced over social media that he was departing the studio, though he also said that he couldn't wait for fans to experience what Massive was working on. A follow-up Tweet from the official Massive Entertainment account thanked Gerighty for everything he's done for the franchise, and wished him luck at his new position at fellow Swedish studio, DICE. The Tweet also reassured fans that the franchise was in very good hands and that the team wouldn't be slowing down or changing their commitment to the work.
The timing of the announcement is a little surprising, as just a week ago, Julian Gerighty was hyping up news about The Division 3 during the New Game+ Showcase. While he couldn't reveal too many details, he did call the game a "monster" and said that the studio was working extremely hard to make sure the game has an impact as big as the first Division game. Details were slim, which likely means The Division 3 is still a ways off.
In addition to The Division 3, Gerighty touched on the upcoming Division mobile game, as well as the new Survivors experience coming to The Division 2. Survivors takes inspiration from the beloved DLC mode for the original Division, serving as an evolution of that formula in a snowbound Washington D.C. Map. The experience would have new innovations and the entire map from the base game would be transformed in some way by the weather. He also confirmed that Magnus Jansén, the original creative director on The Division, is leading the development effort.
In moving to DICE, Gerighty is likely there to help turn the current fortunes of Battlefield 6 around. While the game had tons of positivity and strong word of mouth during the beta tests and even at launch, the forward momentum has seemingly dried up, and player counts are dropping at an alarming rate. Making matters worse, Season 2 of Battlefield 6 was recently hit with a delay as well. Despite becoming the best-selling shooter game of 2025, Battlefield 6 has encountered technical issues, frustration from fans over various game features or content, as well as criticisms over the game's smaller than expected maps. Even with the delay, fans are hopeful that Season 2 could usher in the turnaround that the game desperately needs.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- March 15, 2019
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- Massive Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft
