The Division 2 Confirms Year 9 and Survivors Test Sign-Ups for Later This Year
Elite Task Force applications are open until Monday, August 31, and members will receive guaranteed access to the upcoming Survivors closed test.
Ubisoft used the second Gamescom 2026 panel for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 to share more about Survivors, reopen applications for the Elite Task Force, and confirm that Year 9 is coming. Creative Director Yannick Banchereau and The Division 2: Survivors Creative Director Magnus Jansén discussed the expansion’s winter systems and the team’s plans for the game’s future in the Steam announcement covering the panel.
Survivors will turn Washington into a winter survival challenge
The Division 2: Survivors will transform Washington, D.C. into a harsh winter setting inspired by the original Survival mode. Players will be able to choose between PvE sessions and sessions with PvP enabled, but the expansion is being built around its own mechanics rather than serving as a direct recreation of the earlier mode.
Snow will affect more than the appearance of familiar streets. Agents will leave tracks behind as they move, and deep snow will slow them down. Temperature will also become a survival concern, turning heat sources into useful points during a run.
Nighttime brings an extra tradeoff. Temperatures will fall sharply, but darkness will reduce enemy detection range. Familiar locations can also take on new purposes, creating encounters in areas that normally would not host combat.
The goal is to make Washington feel unfamiliar again, even for Agents who have spent hundreds or thousands of hours in the base game. The winter conditions, altered spaces, and survival systems will ask players to learn the city from a new perspective.
Runs will change through weather, loot, and extraction routes
Survivors is also being designed around player control. Runs will support different lengths and challenge levels, giving players room to choose a shorter outing or commit to a longer and tougher session.
Each trip should also have more variables than a fixed route. Weather and time of day will change, loot locations will be randomized, and both travel paths and extraction points will move around. Those systems are intended to make each run less predictable and give players more to learn over time.
Survivors closed test sign-ups will open later in 2026
Ubisoft confirmed that sign-ups for Survivors closed tests will open later in 2026. The team has not announced an exact date yet, but outside players will help identify problems and show which parts of the expansion are already working well.
Members of the Elite Task Force will receive guaranteed access to the upcoming closed test. The insider program is intended to give Ubisoft feedback early in development, sometimes before features have been fully implemented. Ubisoft is looking for Agents from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels, with an emphasis on feedback that is critical and constructive.
Applications will close on Monday, August 31, at 9 AM CEST / 12 AM PT. Players can submit an application through the official Elite Task Force sign-up page.
Year 9 will continue The Division 2’s expansion
Survivors is only one part of Ubisoft’s longer plan for the game. The developer said Year 8 has expanded The Division 2 through seasonal content, endgame features, PvP additions, new Dark Zone modes, a new Incursion, and the upcoming Echoes of Central Park DLC. The broader roadmap also includes crossplay and Echoes of Central Park.
Year 9 has now been confirmed, although Ubisoft is not ready to share its full content. More details will come during Division Day in March as the team looks toward the next anniversary of The Division 2.
Before that, Echoes of Central Park will receive its first gameplay reveal on September 24 at 9 AM PT / 6 PM CEST. Ubisoft has not yet announced more details about the presentation beyond the world gameplay reveal.
Survivors is still ahead, but the next steps are becoming easier to track. Tell us what you think of Ubisoft’s plans in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Tom Clancy's The Division 2
Developed by Massive Entertainment
The Division 2 is an action-shooter RPG set in an open-world. Play in co-op and PvP modes that offer more variety in missions and challenges, new progression systems with unique twists and surprises, and fresh gaming innovations to engage players for years to come.
- Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Tactical, Adventure
- Platforms Google Stadia, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
- Release March 15, 2019
- Publisher Ubisoft Entertainment
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