It is the end of the road for yet another live service. This time, troubled game publisher Ubisoft announced that its competitive free-to-play shooter XDefiant will shut down after just six months. The decision to pull the plug will have impacts far beyond the game’s diminishing player base, as Ubisoft will shutting down both its Osaka and San Francisco offices, resulting in 277 layoffs.
While the devastating announcement felt inevitable in the face of stiff competition, a core part of XDefiant’s identify feels like untapped potential. And it’s a crying shame that its ideas and the talented people behind the very competent online shooter are now going away forever.
The publisher announced the “difficult decision” Tuesday in a blog post about the game’s immediate future. The publisher said despite a strong start in May, the game didn’t “attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market.” The game will remain playable or those who own it until June 3, 2025. However, the game will not be available to download for new players.
As recently as October, the game’s director Mark Rubin stated that support for XDefiant was going to continue into the future. This week, Rubin said that he is “heartbroken” about the closure of the studio. According to Rubin, the game pulled in over 15 million players in its six-month run.
In May, XDefiant launched as a direct competitor to Call of Duty. Ubisoft hoped to provide a new home for players disillusioned by the direction of Activision’s blockbuster. XDefiant’s leading feature was the exclusion of skill-based matchmaking. Unlike Call of Duty, which matches players with opponents of similar skill level, Ubisoft’s shooter was centered around a more casual, free-for all experience. The game also replicated the simpler feel of older Call of Duty games.
Coming out just a few months after an off year for Call of Duty helped with XDefiant’s early success. More than 7 million players tried it in its first week. That promising start, however, didn’t last. Not launching the game on Steam was a boneheaded choice that Ubisoft would eventually walk back companywide. Then over the summer, Modern Warfare 3 was added to Game Pass, lowering the barrier to entry. Perhaps the most pivotal nail in its proverbial coffin was the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The latest game in the series not only brought in lapsed fans thanks to its availability on Game Pass, it also happened to be one of the strongest entries in years.
There was some awesome potential in the Super Smash Bros-type concept of XDefiant.
It’s a tragic end for a game with that had an extremely cool conceit. XDefiant quietly served as Ubisoft’s Super Smash Bros., bringing together a handful of the publisher’s most successful franchises. There was something awesome about seeing DedSec operatives from Watch Dogs clash with Phantoms from Ghost Recon. For Splinter Cell fans, it was nice to see a new Ubisoft game acknowledge the existence of Third Echelon, the secret bureaucratic task force at the center of the stealth action series.
XDefiant’s door was wide open for other Ubisoft games to join the fray. Adding operators from Rainbow Six Siege or Templars and Assassins were easy no brainers that was surely in in the works for future seasons. And while the inclusion of Far Cry 6’s Freedom Fighters felt like the odd one out of the five starting factions, it sparked the potential for weirder adds down the line. If Ubisoft San Francisco wanted to go as wacky as Fortnite, a limited time Rayman or Beyond Good and Evil faction would have made for some hilarious fun.
Unfortunately, the game really went all-in on capturing an audience a fairly miniscule audience. Appealing to gamers discussing niche things like the quality of matchmaking in Call of Duty ignores the millions more who couldn’t care less. I don’t think there was ever a world where players ditched the latest Call of Duty outright for an off-brand competitor trying to bring back the good old days. Not as long as Remastered versions of games like 2009’s Modern Warfare 2 are readily available.
XDefiant was an overt attempt to cannabilize Call of Duty fans who weren’t happy with Activision’s approach to matchmaking.
The faction-based crossover aspect of XDefiant was deeply underrated. And it’s a shame that it’s potential was paired with a game up against the industry’s most dominating juggernauts. There’s no denying that both Ubisoft teams gave it their all and in some ways succeeded. But this was a losing battle right from the start.
XDefiant’s shutdown is the latest blemish in a year full of disappointment for Ubisoft. One of the publisher’s biggest games of the year, Star Wars Outlaws, underperformed in retail sales. It delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows out of 2024, marking the first time the franchise has missed its holiday release date. It released a useless NFT game to no buzz in the year of our lord 2024. And all of this has occurred as rumors of a potential buy out by Chinese mega-publisher Tencent looms overhead.
