XDefiant, the supposed "CoD-killer", will reportedly be shut down by Ubisoft after Season 4, which should end mid-2025, unless they can boost player numbers.
Ubisoft is going through something of a crisis right now. Star Wars Outlaws flopped, AC Shadows has been delayed, and the stock-price recently fell to a ten-year low. And, if recent reports are to be believed, XDefiant can't save them.
If you haven't had a chance to play XDefiant yet, this is an FPS arena-shooter that launched earlier this year, and which tried to establish itself as a high-skill ceiling alternative to Call of Duty. We played it and honestly had a lot of fun, but clearly the game didn't appeal to a wide enough audience.
"XDefiant is already dead"
Shaun Weber, a game developer and leaker, has revealed that Ubisoft will stop supporting XDefiant after Season 4 unless player numbers improve. In his post on X, he said the following:
XDefiant is already dead. Ubisoft research team is actively asking their tester to have another In-House test session and give/repeat their feedback. Multiple sources told [me] that its possible that the game will end its support after season 4 if they cant get enough players.
Season 4 should end at some point in early/mid-2025, and so the game probably has less than sixth months left.
Sadly, we don't foresee XDefiant making a serious recovery; if their roadmap is anything to go by, they're simply planning on releasing more of the same kind of content, rather than anything wholly new that might draw in new audiences.
We of course wish all the best for the developers behind XDefiant, but frankly it was predictable that this kind of game was going to struggle. The arena-shooter genre has been on the decline for decades, and XDefiant wasn't offering any real innovation.
Did you get a chance to play the game this year, and if so, do you think it does a longer lease of life?