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Jessica Chastain is in talks to star in Ubisoft’s ‘The Division’

By Brad Jones July 28, 2016

Crimson Peak Jessica Chastain — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Jessica Chastain is the latest star in talks to appear in the upcoming cinematic adaptation of Ubisoft’s The Division. She would join Jake Gyllenhaal, who boarded the project in June.

Chastain is known for her dramatic work, including her Oscar-nominated performance in The Help, but has also appeared in genre pictures like Interstellar and The Martian. Her starring role in 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty was a major breakthrough for her Hollywood career, and may have served to recommend her for the part in The Division.

It’s currently unclear just how closely the movie adaptation will adhere to the game’s plot. It’s possible that Chastain could play a character inspired by injured agent Faye Lau, but there’s a good chance that the film will stray farther from its source material, in the vein of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie.

Indeed, the film version of The Division is being developed in the same manner as that project, which is set for a December 2016 release. Ubisoft packaged Assassin’s Creed in-house before pitching it to studios, and that’s the same process that’s being used here, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.

Ubisoft is aggressively pursuing film adaptations of its franchises. As well as The Division and Assassin’s Creed, the studio recently reaffirmed that Tom Hardy is set to star in a version of Splinter Cell, which was initially announced way back in 2012.

Of course, it’s something of a risky strategy to continue developing projects before any of these films have come to fruition — especially given the bad reputation carried by a high majority of video game movies.

A lot is riding on the success of Assassin’s Creed, which will star Michael Fassbender opposite Marion Cotillard, as well as Jeremy Irons. The footage we’ve seen so far looks great, but the film will have to be a big commercial success to make the rest of Ubisoft’s slate seem viable.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

Microsoft gives Activision Blizzard cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft

Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming Service Enters Beta This Week

Microsoft announced its intention to grant Ubisoft, the publisher behind series like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, the cloud streaming rights for Activision Blizzard titles if Microsoft's acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher goes through.
This deal was made in order to appease the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Microsoft has not had an easy time trying to acquire Activision Blizzard as it has run into heavy resistance from regulatory bodies like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.K.'s CMA. The CMA's complaints centered around the potential monopoly Microsoft could have on cloud gaming if the deal were to go through. There was speculation that Microsoft would divest its U.K. cloud gaming efforts to appease the CMA, but it has now presented this new plan that would technically make it give up control of Activision Blizzard game-streaming rights worldwide for the next 15 years.
In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith explainsed that if the Activision Blizzard acquisition happens, Microsoft will give "cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years" in perpetuity following a one-off payment.
Essentially, Ubisoft will be the one deciding which cloud gaming platforms and services to put Activision Blizzard games on, not Microsoft. Smith claims that this means "Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service -- Xbox Cloud Gaming -- or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services," and that Ubisoft will allow them to honor existing agreements with companies like Nvidia.

Ubisoft has been cloud gaming friendly over the past several years, eagerly putting its games on services like Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. With this deal, Ubisoft says it plans to bring Activision Blizzard games to its Ubisoft+ subscription service. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick also commented on the deal, saying that he approves of the deal, but that "nothing substantially changes with the addition of this divestiture" for Activision Blizzard and its investors.
The current deadline for Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is October 18.

Computing

Ubisoft has every right to delete your games — even if it shouldn’t

The GOG Galaxy Mac app showing a library of games.

Everyone's mad at Ubisoft -- and for good reason.

For a moment, it certainly seemed like Ubisoft was not only shutting down inactive accounts, but also deleting games purchased on Steam. Now, not all of that ended up being true, but the controversy has been a not-so-gentle reminder that you don't actually own your games -- and technically, Ubisoft has every right to delete them if it so pleases.
You don't own your games
If you haven't caught wind of the fiasco, an anti-DRM (Digital Rights Management) Twitter user spotted an email circulating from Ubisoft that threatened to delete accounts on the Ubisoft PC app if they remained inactive. If you choose not to follow the link and keep your account safe, Ubisoft will remove your account. Oh, and it seemed like your games along with it.

Gaming

Star Wars Outlaws showcases its scum and villainy in gameplay debut

Star Wars Outlaws splash art depicting Kay Vess and Nix

Today's Ubisoft Forward closed out with a whopping 10 minutes of gameplay footage for the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws, only a day after its debut trailer was released at this summer's Xbox Games Showcase. You can view the entire gameplay video directly below, but we're also breaking it down for you.

Star Wars Outlaws: Official Gameplay Walkthrough | Ubisoft Forward