Ubisoft Indefinitely Delays Zoomer Shooter ‘XDefiant’ In Order To Address “Inconsistencies In The Game Experience”

Spencer Baculi   |  

Oct 12, 2023

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In a devastating blow to the many fans of the twitchy, almost panicked style of gameplay that has recently taken hold of the first-person shooter scene, Ubisoft has announced that their upcoming Xdefiant will be indefinitely delayed in order to allow the development team more time to fine tune the experience.

A Cleaner leads her team into battle in XDefiant (TBD), Ubisoft

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A free-to-play title described by Ubisoft as a “love-letter to fans of classic arena shooters”, XDefiant is a multiplayer-specific title which sees two teams, each made up of six players, square off in a variety of competitive game modes such as team deathmatch and payload delivery.

However, rather than using the industry standard class system to offer players different gameplay styles, XDefiant instead has players choose to fight under the banner of a respective ‘Faction’, membership in which can be swapped grants access to unique weapons and abilites.

A Phantom prepares for a fire fight in XDefiant (TBD), Ubisoft

In setting itself apart from its peers, rather than original teams, these Factions are based on various groups from Ubisoft’s previous titles, including the Cleaners (Tom Clancy’s The Division), DedSec (Watch_Dogs), Echelon (Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell), Libertad (Far Cry), and the Phantoms (Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon).

To this same end, the game also fully commits itself to the aforementioned ‘zoomer’ style of FPS gameplay, with players required to engage in the aforementioned almost-seizure-esque play style which many young players have come to favor.

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Unfortunately for players both genuinely excited for the game and hopeful that it might have served as a containment zone for those more concerned with ‘movement’ over gameplay balance, XDefiant has officially been slapped with an indefinite delay.

Taking to the game’s official Twitter account on October 9th, the game’s dev team informed their playerbase, “Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent Public Test Session and continues to stand alongside us as we build XDefiant. The PTS once again showed us your appreciation for our fast-paced gunplay, uniquely crafted maps, objective-driven modes, and iconic Faction roster. But it also surfaced some inconsistencies in the game experience that we need to address prior to launching our Preseason. So we’ve made the hard decision to delay the Preseason of XDefiant.”

Archive Link XDefiant Official Twitter

“The team will continue working to address these issues and testing them to make sure we deliver on our goal of being a best-in-class arcade shooter,” the devs added. “We will share more information about Preseason and testing as it comes.”

“Thanks again for your support,” they concluded. “We’re working hard to make something really special and we couldn’t do it without you.”

A team prepares to roll out in XDefiant (TBD), Ubisoft

Thanks to this announcement, at present, XDefiant no longer holds any planned release date.

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