Remember when The Division is announced? It was in E3 2013. This is a time when the new consoles, the Xbox One and PS4, are still in hush-hush. Now we know that both consoles isn’t as powerful as the top-end PCs of the time, more so weaker to today’s, and plenty of graphical details used for early gameplay has been scaled down. Watch Dogs is infamous on the whole downgrade debacle, but even The Witcher 3 suffered some too. Both games are announced and shown before the full unveiling of the Xbox One and PS4 as well. The same is about The Division.
While it is always a good idea to favour fun- or compelling- gameplay over high visual fidelity (*cough* The Order 1886 *cough*), it is an even better idea to not put high hopes on early footage of gameplay, as it is never advertised to be the same until the game releases.
Anyway, if you’re curious to how the latest preview build of The Division stacks up to its E3 trailer, here’s a video comparing it, courtesy of Eurogamer.
What footage we see now may be considered the closest to the final release build. Yes, there is a slight downgrade of sorts, but it is still consider a looker, sort of.
Public beta test for The Division is starting on January 28th exclusively for the Xbox One, while PS4 and PC users starts at the 29th. You can sign up here. It is expected to release on March 8th.