The Division's Season Pass and Post-Launch Plans Developer Q&A

We won't have a review of The Division until the day the game launches later this month, but we did get the chance recently to learn a little bit more about what the game will have in store post-launch through its season pass.

In an email Q&A with Magnus Jansen, Ubisoft Massive's creative director, he gave some clues to The Division's upcoming DLC modes and how extra content could potentially be added to the game.

GameSpot: DLC gives developers an opportunity to introduce material like outlandish outfits and weapons skins that might otherwise not fit within a game's universe. Any plans to include crazy/strange/unexpected cosmetic items or emotes in the future?

Magnus Jansen: In the practical and tactical life of a Division agent even something fairly ordinary will be a head-turner, which means that a simple pom-pom on a trained and heavily armed government agent is unexpected. So for now that’s the kind of thing we’re exploring in the unexpected category.

Do you plan to offer weapons as DLC? If so, how do you expect this will impact the game's balance?

Exciting new challenges go hand-in-hand with exciting new tools to tackle those challenges. So, yes, there will be new weapons and gear.

In addition to the paid expansions, what can players expect in terms of free updates?

In the spring we'll have several exciting new features, activities, and content lined up for everyone. The Division is a big game with lots of things to do, but we’re trying to hit as many notes as we can in all of our updates (including the free ones) to ensure both PvE and Darkzone players have content. We are constantly listening to our community and we will be adding most wanted features, such as loot trading.

What is an Incursion and are you planning to develop more over the course of the year?

An Incursion is a PvE end-game activity for a group of four players at max level with high quality equipment. Incursions require preparation and coordination as they are extremely challenging. The first incursion will be available in the first free update. More Incursions are in development, but it is too soon to talk about these without spoiling them

Will the Division offer any microtransaction options?

There is no paid currency in the game, nor is there any way to purchase in-game items such as weapons, armor, or consumables that affect a player’s stats or performance. The Division is not a game where players can pay to win.

The first expansion, Underground, lets you go beneath NYC. But what is there to do down there?

The New York underground--the stuff of legends--is a vast, maze-like world that runs deep below the city. In The Division, factions have started to venture into the bowels of the city threatening to break the quarantine and cause further collapse by wrecking the important power, water, and steam grids of the city running beneath its streets. It is up to the agents to venture into the darkness, locate the hostile factions, and prevent them from doing further harm.

Presumably Underground takes place somewhere in the New York subway system, does this mean the game will only contain limited access to the subway system at launch?

There are some awesome sewer and subway sections in the game at launch, both inside and outside of the Darkzone. But the Underground expansion takes this to the next level.

We saw Brooklyn in a previous demo for The Division but it didn't make it into the final game; can we expect to go there with The Division's DLC?

There are some things that people will have to wait for until launch.

For expansion 2, Survival--you've said it challenges players to "survive as long as possible..." is this a Gears of War/Horde-style mode?

I really don’t want to give anything away about Survival, but I can safely answer "no" to this one without spoiling too much.

What more can you say about the final expansion, Last Stand?

I don’t want to say too much but a new threat rises and you and your team mates must defend against it.

Is there anything else you’d like us to know about the Season Pass?

We’ve decided to be ambitious with the innovation in the DLC expansions. At the heart of each one is a completely new experience; we’re not primarily adding a little bit "more of the same" of what’s available at launch. We want to build on the experience that’s within the game.