Daily Briefing: Friday 7th May

Two new The Division projects are on the way

The studio recently confirmed that a free-to-play title called The Division Heartland is in the works at their Red Storm studio and should release either this year or next. Details are pretty thin on the ground at the minute, but we do know that Heartland is a standalone experience that doesn't require previous knowledge of the series and it will provide an "all-new perspective" on the Division universe.

• The other project is a mobile title announced as part of Ubisoft's wider multimedia expansion of their Tom Clancy properties. We have even fewer details on it than Heartland but Ubisoft have plenty of experience creating mobile spin-offs for their main franchises. Release could be a long way off as well, as Ubisoft are working on more content for the main Division 2, Heartland, and a movie for some reason.

Judgment sequel leaks on PlayStation Store ahead of official announcement

Lost Judgment appeared on the PlayStation marketplace the day before it was due to be officially announced and, according to the listing, is set to release in Japan on September 24th. Release dates for the rest of the world haven't been confirmed just yet, but the mainline Yakuza series has been growing in popularity these last few years so we shouldn't have to wait too long.

• We're expecting a full reveal of Lost Judgment today as per the countdown clock Sega launched last month, so the leak was very unfortunately timed. It'll be interesting to see what Sega have in store for this spin-off sequel - the first Judgment game went over really well.

WoW: Burning Crusade Classic launches June 1st

Following a brief leak on their Battle.net launcher, Blizzard have officially confirmed that World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic will launch at the start of June. Pre-patch will drop on May 18th and players will have to choose whether to go straight to the expansion or continue to hang out in vanilla Classic.

• Blizzard have confirmed that any characters created before the Burning Crusade launches will be cloned for the relevant Classic realm, though players can pay a fee to activate their character in both realms at the same time. This fee is a heft $35 though, which has understandable upset a lot of players.

A new Returnal patch is live, but some save data is lost forever

After Returnal's 1.3.3 patch ruined things so thoroughly that devs Housemarque had to walk it back entirely, the newly-released 1.3.4 patch appears to have had a better time of it. The patch returns the game to an earlier, more stable build that should address the save-deletion issue many players had experienced with patch 1.3.3.

• The kicker is that, while some players will have their save data restored after installing the new patch, others won't. Housemarque explained on Twitter that restoration will depend on whether patch 1.3.3 outright deleted save files or merely corrupted them. It's not a great situation, really, but at least Housemarque are stepping up to sort the bizarre issues with their $70 PlayStation 5 exclusive. Yeesh.