Ubisoft has introduced that XDefiant, its multiplatform free-to-play Name of Obligation-like FPS, is shutting down in June regardless of the sport’s govt producer saying that it wasn’t dying and was “doing nicely” in September.
XDefiant lastly launched in Could for consoles and PC following quite a few delays and a well-received beta. Developed by Ubisoft San Francisco, XDefgiant got here out of the gate with huge launch numbers, constructive evaluations, and a strong quantity of content material. I loved XDefiant, because it supplied me with a fast-paced army area shooter that wasn’t 160GB. However in August, it was reported that the sport wasn’t making sufficient cash and was hemorrhaging gamers. Ubisoft has now introduced that XDefiant received’t be round for for much longer.
On December 3, Ubisoft confirmed that beginning at the moment, new gamers received’t be capable of obtain XDefiant or register an account for the shooter. Servers will stay lively till June 3, 2025. The sport will then shut down. Ubisoft says the plan is to nonetheless launch XDefiant’s season 3 content material within the close to future.
Sport File’s Stephen Totilo stories that Ubisoft is shutting down the San Francisco studio behind XDefiant in addition to Ubisoft Osaka. Additionally it is ramping down its Sydney crew. Round 270 individuals are reportedly being laid off because of these shake-ups and half the XDefiant crew is being moved to different tasks.
Kotaku has contacted Ubisoft for remark, however the writer declined and pointed to its official message on its web site.
XDefiant’s boss confirms the shutdown
XDefiant’s govt producer, Mark Rubin, posted a prolonged message confirming the information and explaining that “till very just lately,” Ubisoft was on board to maintain supporting XDefiant within the hopes of it discovering an viewers and rising. Nonetheless, Rubin says that “the journey grew to become an excessive amount of to sensibly proceed.”
“Sure, this sport has been a private ardour for me for years and sure, I do know that not all challenges result in victory, however I additionally need to acknowledge the entire builders who’re being affected by this closure,” mentioned Rubin.
“Every one in every of them is an actual particular person with an actual life separate from our personal and so they have all put a lot of their very own ardour into making this sport. And I hope that they are often happy with what they did obtain. I do know that I’ll all the time be proud and grateful to have labored with such an excellent crew! A crew that basically punched above its weight class.”
Beforehand, Rubin had pushed again on a report from Insider Gaming in August that claimed that Ubisoft management was shedding confidence within the challenge and that by November, a choice concerning the sport’s future can be reached.
“I simply need to rapidly handle the standing of the sport. i.e. is the sport dying. No, the sport is totally not dying,” mentioned Rubin in a September weblog submit about XDefiant.
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