We're tremendously excited by The Division 2, and while we've only had a small taste of the game so far, we'd be happy to see as many people as possible to play it. Well, that's going to be more difficult now, as presumably thanks to the deal with Epic Games Store, all third-party The Division 2 sellers will have to stop selling the game by March 15.
Any third-party sites - and by that, we mean legal sellers - can continue selling the game until The Division 2 release date of March 15, at which point they will have to delist the game from their sites. They were selling keys to be redeemed on Uplay, not Epic Games Store.
Third-party seller GamesPlanet were the ones to break this news to their customers.
"Sadly we have to announce you that Ubisoft will not allow digital third party stores, such as Gamesplanet, to sell Division 2 after its release on March 15th 2019. After this date, the game will digitally only be available through Ubisoft's Store and another exclusive digital store. This will also be true for all upcoming game content such as Season Pass, Extensions, etc."
The store notes that all pre-orders will be honoured, including all offers, DLC, and gifts (currently there's an offer for a free Ubisoft game when you pre-order The Division 2). The GamesPlanet team also say, "obviously, we are not happy about this decision."
Other third-party sites such as Green Man Gaming and Voidu still have their pages for The Division 2 up, but presumably they'll have to remove them too when the game releases next week.
While GamesPlanet do not specifically say that this is due to the deal to put Division 2 on the Epic Games Store, it seems to be implied. While Steam also sells most Ubisoft games alongside Uplay, as far as we are aware there has never been a case where other digital stores were forced to stop selling a title. Regardless, fans are already deeply unhappy about the situation.
