Ubisoft Shuts Down XDefiant, Impacting Several Production Studios

The free-to-play shooter XDefiant is being discontinued by Ubisoft. After a strong launch, the game failed to attract and retain enough players. As a result, the two production studios in San Francisco and Osaka will be closed and the production site in Sydney will be downsized, which the publisher has communicated in an unusually open manner.

Ubisoft has announced that the free-to-play shooter XDefiant will be shut down. As of 3 December, new downloads and player registrations will no longer be possible. Season 3 is still scheduled to launch in the future. The servers will remain active until 3 June 2025. "For those who purchased the Ultimate Founder's Pack, you'll receive a full refund. Players who made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded," said Mark Rubin, Executive Producer. The 6v6 shooter was designed as a Call of Duty rival with old school gameplay, but was unable to maintain its initial high player numbers. According to Rubin, the game broke internal records early on, reaching five million players in record time. It ended up with over 15 million players. XDefiant was released on 21 May for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Even the original internal announcement has been released by Ubisoft. Marie-Sophie de Waubert, Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer, writes that the game has not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long term to compete at the desired level in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market. "As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it."

For the teams working on XDefiant, the discontinuation of the game has consequences. Marie-Sophie de Waubert: "Even if almost half of the XDefiant team worldwide will be transitioning to other roles within Ubisoft, this decision also leads to the closing of our San Francisco and Osaka production studios and to the ramp down of our Sydney production site, with 143 people departing in San Francisco and 134 people likely to depart in Osaka and Sydney. To those team members leaving Ubisoft, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your work and contributions."

However, Ubisoft will continue to develop games as a service, as Rainbow Six (Siege), The Crew and For Honor continue to be successful. "It's a highly competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles. Globally, we are determined to take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth, innovation and creativity and make sure we can set you up for success. This means continuing to radically evolve our mindset for Production and Business practices, which we will share more about soon, and doing targeted restructuring when necessary," Marie-Sophie de Waubert, Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer, said.

Rubin looking back: "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!" He also thanked his team and the XDefiant players.  Open communication and non-toxic conversations are also emphasised. "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. (...) 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."

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