While Bungie's latest expansion, Rise of Iron, is off to a shaky start, Ubisoft is making sure that its latest update for The Division patch 1.4, goes off without a hitch, finally announcing that the public test server (PTS) will go live later this week.
Ubisoft first announced the public test server at the end of August, saying it was the result of community feedback following the announcement of The Division's major 1.4 patch the week before.
"As many pointed out after we announced Update 1.4, a great way to involve you would be to let you try the update before its release," Ubisoft said. "We are thrilled to confirm that we will be opening a Public Test Server on PC for The Division in the near future."
At the time, the one key piece of information that was missing was the date, but now, in the middle of a the State of the Game, Ubisoft revealed the PTS will go live Sept. 22 for the Elite Task Force before opening up to everyone on Sept. 26.
Agents, the PTS technical test will begin on Thursday, Sept 22. Public opening on PC, Monday, Sept 29. More info: https://t.co/Ut5LOZ5ttR
— The Division (@TheDivisionGame) September 20, 2016
There are also a few extra bits of information that Activision revealed during the stream:
– During the first part of the PTS players will receive a "fresh level 30" character with only purples and can test the World Tier level up from GS 0-160.
– During the second part of the PTS players will be able to use their own characters.
– During the third part of the PTS players will receive new equipment from 1.4 in order to test them out to see if it works as intended.
As a side note, the PTS will have the same maintenance hours as the live servers, so there's no need to schedule gameplay around maintenance times in order to access the game to participate. Also, patch 1.4 is only relevant for the PC version of the game, so players on consoles need not apply.
The Division's PTS is part of a larger effort by Ubisoft to get the game back on track. Before it announced the PTS, it offered players a chance to fly to Sweden to help shape the upcoming 1.4 patch, which comes at a critical time for The Division. Debuting to much fanfare back in March, the game's popularity has since fallen off to only 4,190 peak players within the past 30 days — a mere 1/27th of what it once had during its opening month.
More info about the PTS will be released during the next State of the Game, so hold on until then to find out what's next.
