The Division series boss leaves studio, Ubisoft tells fans "don't worry" about future

Julian Gerighty, the co-director behind the original The Division from 2016 and The Division 2 from 2019, has officially left the Ubisoft studio Massive Entertainment. After taking the creative lead role for Star Wars Outlaws, he returned to the franchise to take the reins for the upcoming third entry.

The reveal arrives several months after the studio responded to rumors about Gerighty leaving Ubisoft, saying that he is still guiding the action RPG franchise. According to the sudden announcement today, EA's Battlefield Studios will be Gerighty's new game development home, which recently shipped Battlefield 6 to the masses with record-breaking results.

"It's time for me to hang up my go bag (keeping the watch) as I go on another grand adventure," said Gerighty in a social media post. "The Division future burns bright, and I can't wait for you to discover what the teams have been working on."

The next entry in the series, The Division 3, was announced back in 2023, but a release date has yet to materialize from Ubisoft. The company also announced a layoff wave that was hitting Massive Entertainment earlier this week. It's unclear if Gerighty's departure is related to that.

"For our players, don’t worry, Agents," added Ubisoft in a statement of its own today. "Our teams who built this world with Julian are still here, carrying it forward with an ambitious, unchanged commitment for the future."

Gerighty's departure from the company comes just days after he appeared at the New Game+ Showcase to hype up The Division 3, where he said that “within these walls at Massive we are working extremely hard on something that I think will have as big an impact as Division 1 was."

It's unclear what position Julian Gerighty will be taking up at Battlefield Studios. The live service shooter game is going through some rough patches of its own, with a delay hitting the second season launch just this week.