While it’s obvious that the publisher wanted to compete with Call of Duty, a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier alleges that it arose after the cancellation of a Splinter Cell title. The project allegedly faced several changes, with the team, headed by Nick Herman (who left to co-found AdHoc Studio and work on Dispatch), attempting to adapt to a games-as-a-service model. Ultimately, it didn’t work out, and XDefiant happened instead.

However, Rubin refutes the rumor. “I can say that is not true. When I got to Ubisoft, they had been working on a game for a year that was very ambitious but was struggling to find the fun. And it was NOT a Splinter Cell game. I then canceled that one and let the team pitch any game ideas they wanted.”

Despite some “cool ones,” the team went with an arena shooter and “We found the fun quickly. So, no, we didn’t pivot off Splinter Cell to make XDefiant. Now, maybe they were thinking about working on Splinter Cell before I got there, but it was never a thing while I was there. My experience with Ubisoft was that they are very open to whatever the studio wants to do, which is great, but I do wish we could have used external engines.”

While acknowledging Schreier stating that the alleged Splinter Cell project started in 2017, while Rubin joined in 2019, the latter clarified that, “At no time when I was at Ubisoft was the San Francisco team working on Splinter Cell and that project was not canceled to make XDefiant. My beef with the article is that there was an implied action of canceling Splinter Cell to make XDefiant, and that is untrue. Maybe that wasn’t intentional, which is fine. Just trying to convey the real truth.”

Is it possible that a Splinter Cell title was in the works and cancelled for different reasons, while XDefiant started up separately and gained more resources? Perhaps. Even if there were traces of the former in the latter, it’s all moot since the title is no more.

Ubisoft has a remake of the first Splinter Cell in development, but it hasn’t offered a release date or showcased any gameplay.

While quite a bit of the post is about the shut down of XDefiant’s servers, Rubin has also noted that he will be leaving the industry as well. “As for me, I’ve decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family so unfortunately you won’t be hearing about me making another game,” wrote Rubin.

“I do care passionately about the shooter space and hope that someone else can pick up the flag that I was trying to carry and make games again that care about the players, treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say. Thank you again to everyone who had so much passion for XDefiant.”

In other parts of his post, Rubin also spoke about the success XDefiant originally saw when it first came out last year, noting that the title had managed to garner quite a few players despite very little marketing. According to him, XDefiant boasted the fastest acquisition of players in its opening weeks in out of any of Ubisoft’s games.

“In fact, I would say something remarkable happened with this game in that although we had very little marketing, we still had the fastest acquisition of players in the first few weeks for a Ubisoft title just from you guys all talking about and promoting the game,” wrote Rubin. “But unfortunately, with little to no marketing, especially after launch, we weren’t acquiring new players after the initial launch.”

As for why XDefiant started losing players leading its its servers getting ultimately shut down, Rubin said that there were a number of different factors at play, including mounting tech debt for the developers that came about because they used an engine to power the game that wasn’t really meant for fast-paced competitive multiplayer shooters. The title’s netcode also suffered for similar reasons, since the engine wasn’t able to handle players with inconsistent connectivity well.

“I also think we made a decent impact in the space,” he wrote. “We saw a lot of reactions from other games to what we were doing and that to me speaks volumes. I’m really sorry we couldn’t quite deliver and maintain this game for a longer time.”

Back in May, Rubin had spoken about how studios should approach game development more like Larian Studios than Activision. He said that, rather than focusing on “FOMO (fear of missing out) marketing and EOMM (engagement-optimised matches).” studios should instead focus on making games with more player-centric design.

XDefiant was shut down after running its final season which was kicked off back in December. As part of the season, the game got three new factions and 13 new maps. Check out our coverage of the update for more details.

Responding to a post by a former XDefiant player about how they hadn’t played Call of Duty in almost a year, Rubin wrote about how modern Call of Duty focuses too much on “FOMO (fear of missing out) marketing and EOMM (engagement-optimised matchmaking) matches.” Rubin also wrote about how the franchise would, in the past, focus more on having more player-centric design and would be less focused on engagement-based tactics.

“A lot of games, Call of Duty included just focus on how to make the most money possible out of the player base,” wrote Rubin. “They rely heavily on FOMO marketing and EOMM matches. But I feel like it used to be just more about the quality of the game which would drive players to play. And that means making the game more player centric. i.e. less engagement based tactics and higher quality experiences for the players. Better maps, modes etc.”

“In other words your game should have a high player count because it’s good and people want to play it rather than people playing it because the game has a $250M marketing budget. Everything is just said is very simplified as it would take too long to really go into it. One last simple analogy. Be more like Larian, less like Activision.”

Responding to another post about how even XDefiant made use of FOMO-focused marketing, Rubin said that, while this was true for the free-to-play shooter, the game had little in the way of budget for marketing.

“As a free to play game we did have fomo content although one of the features that was coming was a way to earn a currency by just playing to buy old content,” wrote Rubin. “But as far as marketing we barely had any marketing budget.”

Ubisoft announced that it would be shutting down the servers for XDefiant back in December. As part of its announcement, the company said that it would be keeping the servers for the shooter live until June 3. Currently, XDefiant is in the midst of its final season – Season 3 – which was launched back in December.

As part of its final season, XDefiant got three more playable factions – the Assassins from Assassin’s Creed, the Wolves from Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, and Blood Dragon from Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. While the game was originally meant to get four new maps as part of the season, it ended up getting 13 maps total, 9 of which were meant for release in future seasons.

While it will be going offline in around a month, the game is currently still available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review of the base game for more details.

Star Wars Outlaws

As iffy as certain things looked before launch, there was still some hope for Star Wars Outlaws from Massive Entertainment’s involvement alone. The Reputation and Wanted system, more organic exploration, and focus on single-player were all the right moves, but it didn’t land for consumers. Those who took the plunge suffered numerous bugs and issues with movement, combat, AI, stealth, and so on. It’s a better game now, but Outlaws still needs work.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

Even with successes like Helldivers 2, this year just wasn’t it for live-service titles. However, the negative response to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League began well prior, with many criticizing the looter shooter’s format. The release sadly did nothing to rise to the occasion, featuring a horrendous story that falls off a cliff, insufferable characters, and the same dreary games-as-a-service mission structure seen hundreds of times before. With a $200 million impact on Warner Bros. Discovery’s revenue, Suicide Squad clearly didn’t meet expectations.

Skull and Bones

Alleged reboots, high-profile departures, constant delays, and a ballooning budget – Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones had all the key ingredients for a potential disaster. Adding in all the live-service staples like seasons, always-online gameplay, a focus on multiplayer, and whatnot hastened the game’s doom (calling it a quadruple-A title also didn’t help). With player numbers reportedly coming in at less than a million around launch, it was a failure before it even got started.

Planet Coaster 2

Incredible visuals and the studio’s penchant for attention to detail did little to make a difference for Planet Coaster 2, which is, by all accounts, a hotly awaited sequel, that much more palatable. The awful UI, pathing issues, lackluster pools, awful characters and various bugs were just too significant to ignore, even with the better campaign. Frontier has rolled out improvements, and it will likely excel in the long run, but for now, Planet Coaster 2 is an underwhelming ride.

Farming Simulator 25

After the failure of Farming Simulator 23 (at least on Nintendo Switch), Farming Simulator 25 marked a return for the franchise to consoles and PC. It shipped with extensive bugs, an annoying user interface, jarring physics, and multitudes of other issues that remain. That’s on top of the unoptimized performance on PC, which hinders the otherwise strong environmental effects and textures. Mods will likely make it a better experience over time but at this point, fans would appreciate a strong title out of the gate (which certainly applies to our next choice).

Starfield: Shattered Space

Starfield had its share of mixed impressions after launching last year and Shattered Space seemed like the perfect opportunity to address many issues while offering a fresh slate. However, the hand-crafted planet of Var’uun’kai delivered the most rudimentary content and barren surroundings to go with lackluster characters and story-telling. Even the intriguing gravity anomalies barely appear after a point.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

I was excited about Stormind Games’ first-person horror, especially with how it leveraged the films and their mechanics. Unfortunately, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a hugely linear, highly scripted experience with bizarre AI, questionable design decisions, and a predictable story that fails to really leverage its endearing characters.

Concord

Sony’s biggest first-party failure in years, Concord was seemingly doomed from its first proper reveal, especially when the hero shooter elements became apparent. After a beta with abysmal numbers, it would launch to middling reviews and reportedly sold only 25,000 copies. Sony initially pulled the title from sale and shut down servers before eventually shuttering it and Firewalk Studio.

Rise of the Ronin

Director Fumihiko Yasuda revealed around June that Rise of the Ronin was Koei Tecmo’s best-selling game so far, with the publisher even reporting higher sales than Nioh. That’s all great, but the game itself fell short of what we expected in terms of open-world activities and storytelling. At least the combat remains enjoyable, and Team Ninja has provided some extensive post-launch content for free.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The first Dragon Age title in ten years was bound to have astronomical expectations, especially with all the rumors and reports of reboots. Combat was sharp despite pivoting to a real-time hack-and-slash approach and the environments are gorgeous, without a doubt. It’s everything else that either whelmed or disappointed, from the uneven characterization and writing to the mission structure. Though it wasn’t BioWare’s worst, it’s far from being its best.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Significant improvements over last year’s game don’t excuse Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 from disappointing in other ways. Despite a superior campaign, its story ultimately felt flat (and continued the same cliffhanger approach), while multiplayer fell short with its map design. Zombies is surprisingly good despite some balance issues, and while the overall experience classifies as “good,” it’s nowhere near the series’ heights.

Unknown 9: Awakening

There’s always some skepticism when a developer gets ahead itself and plans out an entire universe for its IP before the first game even launches. Unfortunately, Unknown 9: Awakening loaded its bland premise with dull writing and boring combat, while various bugs and performance issues weighed even heavier. Suffice it to say that with an all-time peak concurrent player count of 285 on Steam at launch, Unknown 9: Awakening failed to meet any expectations heaped on it.

MultiVersus

From promising platform fighter to being pulled and relaunching earlier this year in a worse form, MultiVersus has had quite the journey. It’s hard to pinpoint all the issues, be it the sheer lack of quality-of-life features at launch or how underwhelming Rifts felt after they finally went live, but above all else, the feel and fluidity from the open beta felt like it was missing. And unfortunately, Player First Games hasn’t been able to capture the magic ever since.

XDefiant

Initially revealed as part of the Tom Clancy series, XDefiant would become a standalone entity while still crossing over with the publisher’s various other titles. However, despite some responsive shooting, it couldn’t match the features and content of other free-to-play shooters at launch. Various issues like network performance also affected it, causing a sharp downturn. Maybe there’s still time to right the ship, but based on the company’s other live-service endeavors, XDefiant’s days could be numbered.

Outcast: A New Beginning

Developing a sequel to a niche title from the late 90s is unusual on its own, but perhaps Outcast: The New Beginning could cater to long-time fans. What it offered was a massive world with nothing exciting, loading up players with menial tasks and awful writing. Appealing as it may be for those seeking more old-school-style titles, A New Beginning felt more like an awkward continuation for a cult-classic series.

The factions in question include the Assassins (Assassin’s Creed), whose melee attacks can one-hit kill; the Wolves (Ghost Recon: Breakpoint), who use drones; and Blood Dragon (Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon) cyber soldiers with super strength and lasers. Though the original plan was to launch four new maps – Mykonos and El Barrio in Arena, Jorvik in Linear, and Animus Anomaly in Tactical – it also includes nine maps meant for future seasons.

New modes like Defuse, Lum Hunt, and Turbo XD are also available, alongside the option to play against Bots. The latter have “varying levels” of difficulty, and you earn reduced XP against them.

If that wasn’t enough, Season 3 includes some much-needed balance changes like a nerf to DedSec’s Spiderbots, faster movement for the Phantoms’ Blitz, and more. Check out the patch notes below for more details.

XDefiant is playable on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, though it’s no longer accepting new players. Check out our review of the base game here.

https://t.co/M9cNXq6fZ7

— XDefiant (@PlayXDefiant) December 18, 2024

Ubisoft has announced that XDefiant is shutting down. Starting today, new downloads will no longer be allowed, while servers will remain active for existing players only until June 3. Season 3 content will be released soon as scheduled, while anyone who purchased the Founder’s Pack – or anyone who made any in-game purchases within the last 30 days – will be fully refunded.

“Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey,” executive producer Mark Rubin says. “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.”

A report published by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson also claims that alongside the game’s closure, Ubisoft is also shuttering its development team at Ubisoft San Francisco, as well as its Osaka studio. The resulting layoffs will reportedly result in 170-180 job cuts.

In his message announcing the game’s shuttering, executive producer Mark Rubin wrote, “I am, of course, heartbroken to have to be writing this post. 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.”

XDefiant is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. As per Rubin, the game’s lifetime playerbase has crossed 15 million players.

According to executive producer Mark Rubin, however, players have nothing to fear. Though some recent reports have claimed that XDefiant has failed to impress Ubisoft and is set to be shut down after the end of its fourth season, Rubin has taken to Twitter to dispel those rumours, stating that the development team is currently focused on improving the game’s core technical experience, and that planning is already underway for what will come next after Season 4. That, as per Rubin, will also entail more aggressive marketing down the line, as Ubisoft attempts to both capture new players and entice lapsed ones to hop back in. 

“To be crystal clear, there are NO plans to shut down after season 4,” Rubin wrote “I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 and 4. We have done very little marketing so yes our 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.”

XDefiant is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Its currently in its second season of post-launch content, which kicked off last month.

The season marks the arrival of a new map, Clubhouse, with two more, Rockefeller and Daytona, arriving sometime later. Three new weapons are also available – the LVOA-C, a Sawed-off Shotgun and an unknown sniper rifle. Of course, the season also marks several changes, like the timing on Boosters only ticking down during matches, Battle Pass tiers having less XP thresholds and double XP from completing matches.

Echelon’s Intel Suit also has a longer cooldown alongside the Phantoms’ Mag Barrier, the latter also seeing a health reduction from 500 to 400. Meanwhile, Libertad’s BioVida Boost has a shorter cooldown from 25 to 20 seconds. Check out the other changes to Factions like DedSec below and full patch notes here.

XDefiant Y1S1.0 Patch Notes

Gameplay

• Changed the expiration timing of activated Boosters so their lifespan counts down only during match time, when you’re actually playing, rather than all the time, like when you’re folding laundry or whatever.
• Lowered the XP threshold for each Battle Pass tier to give Battle Pass progression a little more pep.
• Tuned Match Bonus XP rewards: MVP and Victory went from 2,000 to 1,000 XP. Draw went from 1,000 to 500. Completion doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 to encourage player stick-to-itiveness.
• Answered a community ask to add a headshot icon to the Killfeed because it feels good to rub it in.

Factions

• Added the GSK faction and their no-nonsense announcer: HQ.
  – These elite Team Rainbow operators from Germany’s Border Protection Command specialize in crowd control and securing territory. They can deploy electrified barbed wire for area denial, counter incoming enemy devices with their Active Defense System, and dazzle multiple foes with flash charges mounted on their G52-Tactical Shield ultra. Call them Grenzschutzkommando because it’s fun and also accurate.
• Increased the cooldown of Echelon’s Intel Suit from 30 to 40 seconds.
• Tuned the cooldown of the Phantoms’ Mag Barrier from 30 to 40 seconds. Mag Barrier hit points were also reduced from 500 to 400.
• The Phantoms’ AEGIS now takes damage from EMP grenades (lob six to put it out of commission).
• DedSec Hijack cooldown decreased from 28 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill) to 20 seconds (plus the remaining duration of the hacked skill).
  – For example, let’s say a Mag Barrier has 7 seconds left and gets hacked: The cooldown becomes 20 plus 7 seconds. Failed Hijack cooldown, meanwhile, decreases from 8 to 5 seconds.
• DedSec’s Spiderbot cooldown increased from 25 to 40 seconds.
• Adjusted Spiderbot behavior so multiple Spiderbots won’t attempt to hug the same face, nor will Spiderbots continue to ignore faces they’ve hugged multiple recent times. Some give and take from the Spiderbot kingdom.
• Decreased the cooldown of Libertad’s BioVida Boost from 25 to 20 seconds.
• Fixed Libertad’s Medico Supremo so it will no longer disappear after the deploying player respawns as a different faction.

Maps

• Added the new Clubhouse map, a two-story hangout popular with international operators. Ideal for firefights in the short- to mid-range. Home to game modes Domination, Occupy, Hot Shot, and the new CTF.

Game Modes

• Added Capture the Flag, hereafter referred to as CTF. For the uninitiated: You take the enemy’s flag from their base and bring it back to your own, while protecting your team’s flag. CTF is available on a variety of maps.

The GSK will be familiar to Rainbow Six fans and utilize electric razor-wire to secure a point or an Active Defense System to shoot down explosives. The faction can also deploy a Flashshield, blocking damage while flashing and stunning enemies up close. If that wasn’t enough, their ballistic helmets allow for reduced headshot damage.

Other content includes the LVOA-C assault rifle, a new unrevealed sniper rifle and the Sawed-off Shotgun as a secondary. Players can also unlock new weapon skins at higher Mastery Levels, namely Titanium Violet at Mastery 4, Titanium Azure at Mastery 5 and Titanium Prisma at Mastery 6.

There are also three new maps – Clubhouse is available at launch, while Daytona and Rockefeller arrive later in the season (along with Capture the Flag). Kaptan, Iselda, Green and Stark are also getting new skins courtesy of the Premium Battle Pass. Check out the trailer below for more details.

XDefiant is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. It’s crossed 11 million players since launch.

As revealed by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview published on the company’s official website, XDefiant has crossed 11 million players across all platforms since its release a little over a month ago. Prior reports had claimed that the game attracted over 8 million players in its launch week.

“We need to continue to listen closely to our players and make well-informed decisions on where to focus our efforts, because if you succeed at GaaS, you can succeed for the long-term,” Guillemot said when asked about Ubisoft’s ambitions in the live service space. “Let’s look at XDefiant. There’s a lot of work to do, but it was able to attract 11 million players in a short time. And that number will increase with all the work done by the team to ensure Season One brings a lot more to the existing experience. It’s about making the right choices and sticking to them.”

Asked about what Ubisoft is looking for from XDefiant in the future, Guillemot said that the game still has “a long way to go”, and that the development team intends to keep working with the community to further improve the experience.

“Well, outside of it being continually updated, with different experiences and optimized gameplay, I’d love to see it as a serious esport,” he said. “But really, for a game like this, there’s no limit to its future. And we’ve got a fantastic team on it, who are listening to our players and communicating with them, which is so crucial. We’ve started off strong, but there’s still a long way to go, and I’m excited for us to step up to the challenge.”

XDefiant is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The shooter’s first season of post-launch content is set to kick off on July 2. Read more on that through here.