Ubisoft delays The Division's beta into 2016, alpha coming this week to Xbox One

The upcoming beta for Tom Clancy's The Division has been delayed to early 2016, but Xbox One pre-order customers are getting a consolation prize: a closed alpha that will go live this week, publisher Ubisoft announced today.

The Division's beta was announced during E3 2015 as a timed Xbox One exclusive, scheduled to be available this fall on Microsoft's console and in early 2016 on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. It will be a closed beta. Ubisoft opened beta sign-ups in late June; the only way to get a beta key at the moment is to pre-order the game.

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Ubisoft said today that The Division's beta won't be available until early 2016 on any platform. We've reached out to the company to ask if the beta will still go live first on Xbox One, and will update this article with any information we receive.

Xbox One pre-order customers will still be able to play The Division this month: Ubisoft announced that an alpha will run this week for just under three days, from 4 a.m. ET on Dec. 9 to 3 a.m. ET on Dec. 12. The alpha will be the first time that anything in The Division beyond the previously revealed Dark Zone PvP areas has been playable by the public. Developer Massive Entertainment will be using the alpha to focus "mainly on gameplay feedback and other technical aspects such as server stability," the studio said on the UbiBlog.

The alpha will be available exclusively on Xbox One, and it will be a closed alpha — players will have to accept a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting them from sharing any images or video of the alpha, including livestreams, or discussing the game outside Ubisoft's alpha forums. Ubisoft will start sending out codes today for the alpha, which will be available worldwide except in China and Japan.

The Division is set for release March 8, 2016, on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.