Julian Gerighty, a long-time key cog at Massive Entertainment, has announced that he’s departing the Ubisoft-owned studio after 12 years to go and work on Battlefield at EA. His departure swiftly follows Ubisoft revealing earlier this week that they’re planning to lay off staff at Massive, with a voluntary redundancy process late last year reportedly having not resulted in enough departures to stave off this bloodletting.
Meanwhile, the publishers have opted to take the opportunity of Gerighty’s departure to reassure folks that The Division series is just fine.
“While we’ll miss him, his mark will live on at Massive and we’ll continue to bring the world he’s been part of creating to our players for years to come,” Ubisoft wrote in said statement. “For our players, don’t worry, Agents. Our teams who built this world with Julian are still here, carrying it forward with an ambitious, unchanged commitment for the future with The Division 2, The Division 2: Survivors, The Division Resurgence and The Division 3.”
“It’s time for me to hang up my go bag (keeping the watch) as I go on another grand adventure,” Gerighty wrote in his own departure tweet. “The Division future burns bright, and I can’t wait for you to discover what the teams have been working on.”
According to Ubisoft, veteran Division developers Yannick Banchereau and Mathias Karlson remain creative directors on The Division 2 and The Division 3 respectively, while The Division creative director Magnus Jansen is now helming The Division 2’s extraction mode Survivors.
The Division 3 was announced back in 2023, but word in had had gone pretty quiet until Gerighty recently said in an appearance that the New Game+ Showcase that he reckoned it’ll “have as big an impact” as the first Division game.
Meanwhile, a poster spotted at a Ubisoft-run esports event in Japan earlier this week prompted speculation that a definitive edition of that first entry into the Clancy-filled series might be about to be revealed. As of writing, no such announcement’s been forthcoming.