Ubisoft announced that it will discontinue development XDefiantits free first person shooter title. As a result, half of the XDefiant team worldwide will transition to other roles within Ubisoft.
This decision also results in the closure of the San Francisco and Osaka production studios and the downgrading of the Sydney production site, with 143 people leaving in San Francisco and 134 people likely to leave in Osaka and Sydney.
For players, this also means the game will shut down in June 2025. Ubisoft said new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available. The company will still release Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025. Those who purchased an Ultimate Founder’s Pack will receive a refund, as will those who made a purchase in the last 30 days.
You can find a message from Mark Rubin, Executive Producer of XDefiant, here and Marie-Sophie de Waubert, director of studies and director of portfolios, here.
It’s a sad outcome for the folks at XDefiant who had high hopes of competing with Call of Duty. XDefiant quickly surpassed five million players at launch and grew to 15 million, but clearly there weren’t enough of those players buying in-game stuff to offset the rising costs.
De Waubert said in his post to staff: “Despite an encouraging start, passionate team work and a committed fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we we aim at the very demanding free-to-play FPS market. As a result, the game is far from achieving the necessary results, and we are announcing that we will be fine-tuning it.”
Layoffs in San Francisco, Osaka and Sydney will be tough on those cities. Critics of Ubisoft have said the company has too many employees, given its size, and management has only recently begun to address this challenge, which was years in the making. It probably didn’t help that Skull & Bones underperformed, as did Star Wars: Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows being delayed until 2025.
Rubin’s statement is as follows:
Hello XDefiant fans,
Unfortunately, I’m here today to announce that XDefiant will be shutting down.
Starting today (December 3, 2024), new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available. We will still be releasing our Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3rd, 2025.
For those who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack, you will receive a full refund. Players who have made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be refunded in full. These refunds should happen automatically within eight weeks of today and you can find more details on our official website, XDefiant.com.
A few years ago, Ubisoft and the SF Dev team embarked on a daring adventure to develop a new arcade shooter called XDefiant. It was from the beginning, an incredible challenge. Not only were we trying to shake up the genre by doing away with Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) while bringing back a more “old-school” arcade shooting experience, but we were also diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play. – to play And for that I want to applaud not only the development team, but also the leadership of Ubisoft for taking this opportunity!
Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. 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 take until very recently. But, unfortunately, the trip was too long to reasonably continue.
Of course, I am heartbroken to have to write this post. Yes, this game has been a personal passion of mine for years and yes, I know that not all challenges lead to victory, but I also want to acknowledge all the developers who are affected by this shutdown. Each and every one of them is a real person with a real life independent of our own and they all put a lot of their own passion into making this game. And I hope they can be proud of what they have achieved. I know I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such a great team! A team that really punched above its weight class.
And what they achieved is truly remarkable. The early response from players when XDefiant launched was incredible: we broke internal game records for the fastest game to cross five million users, and by the end of it, we had over 15 million players playing our game! That’s something to be very proud of, especially considering how tough this genre is. So, thanks to all the developers who put their passion into making this game!
If there’s one thing I hope we can all take away from this experience, it’s the importance of open and 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 first post on XDefiant, this was the vision I wanted to champion and I hope it leaves a positive mark on how the gaming industry treats its players and communities.
To our players, THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible community that has grown up around XDefiant. Your passion, creativity and dedication have inspired us every step of the way.
With the utmost love and respect,
Mark Rubin, Executive Producer, XDefiant
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