'The Division' updates, gameplay news: New survival mode comes to PTS; release date not yet confirmed

"Tom Clancy's The Division" promo image.Ubisoft Massive/ Tom Clancy's The Division

With the game-changing effects implemented by the "Tom Clancy's The Division" game update 1.4, a lot of fans are excited to know what its developer — Ubisoft — will offer next. Thankfully, the company is willing to indulge eager players and revealed some details about its next major expansion, known simply as Survival.

According to Game Rant, "The Division" had a pretty lively year as it first went out as a game that racked up some serious sales numbers. However, the eagerly awaited title was then plagued by various issues after its first expansion's launch back in summer. Thankfully, Massive Entertainment took the initiative and took the game back to the drawing board, fixing its issues as well as gameplay mechanics that eventually improved the overall experience for its players. 

As such, after launching update 1.4 — which certainly made some drastic changes to the game's experience — Ubisoft decided to take good advantage of the momentum and dropped a lot of hints as well as gameplay news for their newest expansion, Survival. This was accomplished in a new community stream on Twitch, where Hamish Bode — the community developer — revealed that the expansion is already making its appearance on the Public Test Server (PTS).

Unfortunately, this is exclusively available for PC users, who can download the massive 7 GB update to the game. However, the update does not really give any details about when exactly the new update will be released to the general public.

Meanwhile, according to Polygon, the new mode is basically a more intense version of "The Division." There will be 24 participants in the new mode, and it will be set in the frozen tundra that is New York City in the middle of winter. There will be both Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP) parts for the game mode. The PvE mode will have players do their best to ensure that everyone survives the snowstorm, as they will be sick, starving, and cold.