Ubisoft's hotly anticipated The Division will "never be able" to make its late 2014 release window, a source at developer Ubisoft Massive is said to have claimed.

GameReactor reports that an anonymous source at Ubisoft Massive told the site that most of the development time has gone into the game's Snowdrop engine, and that work on the game itself has barely begun.

"The game engine works well," said the source, "it's not done but works well. The actual game development has barely started, however."

"The fact that Ubisoft has gone public with a 2014 release date feels laughable to be perfectly honest, we will never be able to release The Division this year. It's a large project, and we have very far to go."

The Division was unveiled for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC at E3 2013, and the game is a third-person shooter set in a post-apocalyptic New York. Ubisoft has said the title will feature an "unprecedented level of realism."