The Division's map won't include Brooklyn at launch

Despite earlier trailers showing scenes set in Brooklyn, Tom Clancy's The Division will be entirely set within midtown Manhattan at the game's launch, the game's creative director said.

In an interview with the Examiner on Friday, and later in a video with Open World Games, Magnus Jansen said the game is sticking to midtown Manhattan because "of the 1-to-1 recreation" of that environment, which should still offer plenty of territory for an open-world game.

There's a narrative reason for it, too, Jansen said; the pandemic that has wiped out New York has cut off even interborough travel.

Nothing would seem to rule out other areas being added to the game later; The Division will have a program of premium DLC promising "major expansions," and a season pass available for purchase covers all of it. Still, the absence of Brooklyn is a notable change from the first glimpses of the game given three years ago.

The E3 2013 gameplay trailer (above) featured an extensive look at Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood. Another teaser and the live-action "Silent Night" trailer Ubisoft rolled out in mid-December also appears set in the same area, with the same view of the Manhattan Bridge.

The territory players will explore when The Division's beta goes live on Jan. 28 is what they can expect when the game launches on March 8 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. "What you guys here have seen today is pretty much the extent of the open world of our game," Jansen told Open World Games in this video.

Tom Clancy's The Division was originally scheduled for a 2015 launch, but was delayed last spring to this March. It is being developed by Ubisoft Massive with assistance from other Ubisoft studios. For more, see our preview from E3 2015.