Reflections co-developing Tom Clancy’s The Division

Ubisoft’s newest Tom Clancy IP is not being solely developed in Sweden – UK studio Reflections is co-developing the title, Develop can reveal.

The partnership between the Newcastle-based developer and Malmö’s Massive Entertainment will see both teams collaborating on upcoming online shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division, which is in development for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Reflections MD Pauline Jacquey told Develop that "about 40 per cent" of her studio is working on The Division and this is bigger than some of the firm’s contributions to previous Ubisoft games such as Watch Dogs, Just Dance and Far Cry 3.

"We’re working on all of the game’s systems: main characters, enemies, RPG pillars, building Manhattan, online components, and so on," she said.

"It gives us a very broad and wide input on the game, but it’s not as limited as the naval battles on Assassin’s Creed III."

Jacquey added that while the initial conception of the game was handled by Massive, Reflections has already been working on The Division for a few months now.

"We’ve brought a very good design and technological strength to The Division," she said. "Massive’s team is bigger, but ours is still significant, and its competency in art, technology and design is really showing.

"There’s so much love for this game at Reflections. Our guys are absolutely crazy about it. So for some of them it’s a life achievement being able to participate in the development of the game."

The Reflections boss vehemently denied that the partnership with Massive was not a sign of development troubles for The Division – something that has proven to be the case when other studios have been brought on board in the past.

"That’s absolutely not the case," Jacquey said. "This is part of a global model that Ubisoft has been deploying in the past seven or eight years.

"It’s also classic team size management. You don’t want your team to be too big when you’re in the initial phase of conception, when you need a lot of agility. But when you’re in full production – and given that the game’s scope is gigantic – it needs a big team behind it."

Jacquey added that the partnership actually came from Massive and Reflections’ desire to work together, rather than instructions from the Ubisoft group and that this has been planned as a long-term partnership.

You can read our full interview with Jacquey, revealing more about the studio’s collaboration, by clicking here.