XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play FPS featuring numerous franchises from within the company, is surrounded by question marks towards the end of 2024.
Several months after release, rumors are swirling about what’s coming next for the game. Seasons one and two have apparently done little to keep gamers interested in buying skins to fund the project. This has left the once-promising game’s live-service future in doubt.
Here’s what we know about the murky future for XDefiant.
Is XDefiant getting shut down?
As of Oct. 15, 2024, the question around XDefiant’s fate remains up in the air, but the issue was addressed by XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin after weeks of speculation and reports about the subject.
Talk of XDefiant’s impending demise began in August with a report from Insider Gaming, which claimed the FPS was “on borrowed time” as the game’s player numbers looked grim, with sources saying that the game had until season three to turn things around.
“Internally, optimism for the game has shifted primarily due to the game’s continuously declining player numbers and lack of player spending,” the report said. “One source told me that the game has been struggling to obtain 20,000 concurrent players across all its platforms, whereas another said, ‘they [Ubisoft] would probably be happy with that number,’ suggesting that it’s now much lower.”
XDefiant’s player count numbers are not public, considering the game is only available on Ubisoft’s Connect app on PC and the company hasn’t detailed how many people play. But a month later, during an investor call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot admitted how the game’s performance was “behind expectations.”
Things came to a head on Oct. 15 when gaming industry insider and leaker @just4leaks2 posted on Twitter/X that XDefiant was “already dead” and that “the game will end its support after season four” unless more players came into the game. Finally, Rubin was forced to speak out.
“To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after season four,” Rubin said on Twitter/X. “I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year Two plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for seasons three and four.”
Rubin went on to say the game has “done very little marketing,” clarifying that “[their] numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”
Will a marketing deluge be enough to save XDefiant, which already suffered multiple delays and tenuous development?
What went wrong with XDefiant?
XDefiant had a lot of excitement and potential going for it, with many players looking at the game as an alternative to games like Call of Duty and other FPS titles. But just months after release, after a very promising launch, there’s talk of it being shut down. So, what happened?
Too much to play, too little time
To put it bluntly, there are just too many games out right now. And a lot of them are live-service titles, like XDefiant, which rely on players coming back and buying battle passes and cosmetics time and time again to find success.
As a writer knee-deep in the gaming world, I get anxiety thinking about what game to play or focus on at any given time. And when it comes to gamers with little time to spend on games, the choice is difficult. And it appears that, more often than not, XDefiant is not getting chosen
Too much confidence in Ubisoft IP?
Ubisoft proudly touted its factions, characters, and abilities inspired by its IP. With a spin on the “hero shooter” genre, XDefiant features characters from such series as Splinter Cell, The Division, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, and more.
But it appears that the staying power and marquee attraction potential of those franchises were overestimated. It hasn’t been much of a selling point for many who have tried it out.
It came for the king and missed
It’s no secret XDefiant was taking aim at the biggest FPS in the world in CoD. The dev team features Rubin, a former CoD developer, and several former CoD pros, such as Patrick “ACHES” Price. Fans fed up with CoD were looking forward to something new, but the bigger, meaner kid on the block wasn’t ready to go down without a fight.
XDefiant launched on May 21, only to have Black Ops 6 confirmed by Activision on May 23. Whether the timing was intentional, it was a rough look, even with XDefiant’s strong start. Interest dwindled over time, and the new CoD launches in the middle of season two for Ubisoft’s game.
This article will be updated with more information once it becomes available.
