Tom Clancy's The Division is one of the rare instances in video games wherein a title actually gets markedly better as it ages. Despite some problems during the game's initial release, Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment have righted the ship and created an engaging, popular MMO-lite experience that has seen a huge influx of returning players in recent months. Part of that has been Massive's willingness to immediately and effectively address issues within the game, and now that The Division's PTS update feedback has started rolling in, it appears Massive will be doing more of the same - The Division will now be getting an Update 1.6.1, also called PTS 2, that will address and remove hip-fire aim assist for controllers.

Massive announced the update through the official Ubisoft forums, and community manager Ubi-gabelikes was quick to address hip-fire as the feature the developer had gotten the most early feedback on during the Update 1.6 PTS rollout. Ubi-gabelikes also indicated that Massive would like to look at hip-firing in general much more closely, but wanted to address what it saw as a potentially game-breaking issue right away:

"While we want to look at hip-fire as a whole for future updates, for the time being we want to address the most pressing matter that has been reported by the community: hip-fire aim assist when using a controller."

Essentially, the community in The Division felt as though aim assist for hip-fire on a controller gave players using that peripheral an unfair advantage over those who were not, and Massive agreed with them after reviewing preliminary data during the early stages of the PTS rollout. Massive is making the change in an effort to increase balance across all of The Division's platforms, building on the good will the developer earned after also addressing some multiplayer issues in The Division with Update 1.6 itself.

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The evolution of The Division from one of the biggest launch disappointments in recent memory to a genuine contender has been one of gaming's most interesting - and underappreciated - stories, and Ubisoft and Massive's commitment to improving the title has begun to pay off. If nothing else, Ubisoft is confident enough in the game that it created a The Division DLC pack for Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which suggests the publisher believes there are enough dedicated players to support crossover content.

Of course, the PTS update will fix more than just hip-fire assist, and the full patch notes can be read here for those who are interested in them. The change to hip-fire certainly stands out as the most impactful, however, and should continue to refine and improve The Division's multiplayer experience moving forward.

The Division Update 1.6.1 goes live today, April 27, on the Public Test Server.

Source: Ubisoft Official Forums