14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that a beta stage for the long-awaited The Division is set to be launched by the development team at Ubisoft before the end of the month, as the game is getting a little more testing before the official launch in March of this year.
The information has been apparently leaked by the official uPlay application for a brief period but no clear date was mentioned, with a third-party retailer also suggesting that gamers might get access to a slice of the video game on January 29.
Ubisoft has not offered any official information about a beta period for The Division, but it might run one to make sure that the infrastructure required to run the title is solid and to show off some of the core features to the public.
There are no details about the number of players that will be accepted for the testing period and what they will have to do to qualify.
The company might be getting ready to make an announcement soon, having started the official promotional period for the game by launching a new Agent Journey trailer that's designed to communicate the fundamental elements that power the world that players will explore.
The official PlayStation Store page for The Division also suggests that Ubisoft will implement a range of microtransactions although their exact nature is not yet clear.
Presumably, gamers will be able to spend real-world money to get access to cosmetic tweaks for their characters, in a system similar to that used in the recently launched Rainbow Six Siege.
More details will probably be offered before The Division arrives on the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PC on March 8.
Ubisoft aims to deliver a mix of third-person shooter and MMO
The Division was announced in 2013 and is one of the most ambitious new intellectual properties that the publisher is bringing to the new generation of home consoles and the PC, designed to mix and match mechanics to offer a new type of gaming experience.
During combat, gamers will be able to use the core ideas of the third-person shooter, moving across the city of New York in a variety of environments to explore locations and take out enemies.
But The Division also uses classic MMO ideas and allows each character to evolve in unique ways and find specialized gear to enhance its capabilities both when taking out AI-controlled foes and when facing off against other humans.
The story of the game takes place after a pandemic spreads on and after Black Friday, bringing down the government of the United States and bringing chaos to all large urban centers, forcing a secretive group of agents to be activated to investigate its cause and then deal with the threat.
The Division will use a new Snowdrop engine, which looks very good in screenshots and trailers, which will feature realistic use of light, detailed models, and environments as well as realistic behavior for characters controlled by the Artificial Intelligence.