The Division 2 is almost out, which means marketing has begun to ramp up even more. Unfortunately, a lot of the marketing for The Division 2 has been completely out of line with the game itself. Not only has it gone directly against previous statements made by the developers, but it also makes light of some very serious issues in our current climate.
There is a very delicate line in terms of tastefulness when it comes to political messaging. Twice now marketing for The Division 2 has, for a lack of a better word, poked fun at two very hot-button topics. First, an email riffed on the government shutdown that took place for 35 days. The government shutdown put many people out of work, and Ubisoft calling The Division 2 ?a real government shutdown? just read as painfully tone-deaf. Then The Division 2 Twitter account posted an in-universe memo concerning a wall on the Mexico-U.S. border. Sure, the roles are reversed in terms of the who?s building the wall this time. However, at a time where there is a very clear humanitarian crisis, it?s even more head-scratching (to put it mildly).
Again, outside of how boneheaded some of these moves were, there?s also the matter of statements straight from the developers. The COO of The Division 2 developer Massive Entertainment has actually said inserting politics in its games would be ?bad for business.? Which, in itself isn?t a bad statement. However, topics the developer tends to tackle have distinctly political undertones. ...