As they say, “When it rains, it pours” – and for Ubisoft, who is currently struggling to barely keep the company’s head above water, their latest storm centers on the announcement that after just barely six months of total uptime, they will officially be closing the doors on their free-to-play FPS XDefiant.
Properly releasing to the public on May 21st, XDefiant‘s gameplay loop centered on assigning players to one of two teams, each made up of six players total, and having them face off in one of six game types including Escort (a ‘payload delivery’ style mode where one team escorts a mobile robot to a specific location while the other team attempts to stop them), Zone Control (wherein players fight over possession of five separate markers on a given map), Domination (which tasks each team with maintaining possession of three specific map markers), Occupy (similar to the last two modes, except there’s only a single, ever-rotating map marker for players to battle over), and Hot Shot (a deathmatch-type mode where players become faster the more enemies they eliminate, albeit at the cost of them becoming more and more visible on the map.)
(And no, readers, neither you nor I missed any details: The game does not have a standard, straight-forward deathmatch mode – an admitted head-scratcher for a multiplayer shooter.)
Notably, rather than picking one’s character via a standard ‘class/hero’ system seen in other FPS titles like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege or Overwatch 2,
To this end, rather than following in the footsteps of other FPS titles like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege or Overwatch 2 and having players pick their play style via a standard ‘class/hero’ system, XDefiant instead asks them to select a ‘Faction’ to fight for, with each organization offering different skills and weapons to use in battle.
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), the Phantoms (Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon), the GS-Kommando (Rainbow Six Siege), and The Highywaymen (Far Cry New Dawn).
But more so than just this bit of ‘brand synergy’, XDefiant‘s defining feature was perhaps its gameplay, which eschewed typical FPS design philosophies in favor of one that specifically catered to the dash-cancel heavy, constant-weapon-switching, fast-paced gameplay that streamers, particularly younger ones, seem to gravitate towards (hence the game’s association with the colloquial term ‘zoomer shooter’).
Unfortunately for Ubisoft, this gameplay style had little in the way of mass appeal, thus leaving XDefiant squarely in the relatively small realm of genuine competitive players and regular streamers.
And as a result of this creative decision, as well as the company’s decision to lock the game exclusively behind their proprietary Ubisoft Connect launcher, the game’s profile and playerbase failed to truly take off.
Thus, on December 3rd, Ubisoft took to their official Twitter account, as well as their official website, to announce that XDefiant would be moving into “sunsetting” mode over the next six months in advance of a full-on shut down.
“Thank you for your incredible dedication and support of XDefiant,” the French developer told its players. “We regret to inform you that we are initiating the sunset process starting today, December 3rd, 2024.”
“As a result, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available,” they explained. “Season 3 will still launch, so stay tuned for more updates to come. The servers will remain active, and the game will be fully playable [for currently registered players] until June 3rd, 2025.”
In a rare show of consumer care, Ubisoft also confirmed that they would be issuing refunds “for those who purchased the Ultimate Founders Pack”, as the bundle’s promise of providing customers with all of the game’s first year Faction unlocks can no longer be fulfilled, and to “players who have made [Virtual Currency] and DLC purchases since November 3rd, 2024,” all of which will be handled automatically thanks to the digital nature of these items.
(However, players who do not receive their refund by January 28th, 2025, are advised to reach out for further assistance via Ubisoft’s official support page.)
Closing out the XDefiant era with a lengthy statement of his own, the game’s Executive Producer Mark Rubin reflected, “A few years ago, Ubisoft and the SF Dev team embarked on a bold adventure to develop a new arcade shooter called XDefiant. It was from the start, an incredible challenge. Not only were we trying to shake up the genre by removing Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) while bringing back a more ‘old-school’ arcade shooter experience, but we were also diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play. And for that I want to applaud not only the Dev team but also Ubisoft leadership for taking that chance!”
“Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey,” he continued. “Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue.”
“I am, of course, heartbroken to have to be writing this post,” Rubin said. “Yes, this game has been a personal passion for me for years and yes, I know that not all challenges lead to victory, but I also want to recognize all of the developers who are being affected by this closure. Each and every one of them is a real person with a real life separate from our own and they have all put so much of their own passion into making this game. And I hope that they can be proud of what they did achieve. I know that I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such a great team! A team that really punched above its weight class.”
“And what they achieved is truly remarkable,” he then praised. “The early response from players when XDefiant launched was amazing—we broke internal records for the fastest game to surpass 5 million users and in the end we had over 15 million players play our game! That is something to be extremely proud of, especially considering how tough this genre is. So, thank you to all of the developers who put their passion into making this game!”
Drawing his thoughts to a close, Rubin ultimately asserted, “If there’s one thing, I hope we can all take away from this experience, it’s the importance of open, honest communication between developers and players. This “player-first” mentality along with respectful, non-toxic conversations between developers and players has been one of the standout differences that made XDefiant so special. From my very first post about XDefiant, this was the vision I wanted to champion, and I hope it leaves a positive mark on how the game industry treats its players and communities.”
