XDefiant Archives - Dot Esports

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play FPS featuring numerous franchises from within the company, is surrounded by question marks towards the end of 2024.

Several months after release, rumors are swirling about what’s coming next for the game. The first few seasons of XDefiant did little to keep gamers interested in buying skins to fund the project. This has left the once-promising game’s live-service future in doubt.

After assuring players there were no plans to shut down XDefiant just two months ago, the game’s official Twitter account and executive producer Mark Rubin revealed that’s exactly what will happen in 2025.

The announcements came today swiftly after a report from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson indicating the same news. XDefiant is beginning the sunsetting process for the game now, according to Henderson’s report and confirmed by Rubin’s statement. Season three of the title will still launch, but starting today, “new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available.” The game’s servers will remain online until June 3, 2025, at which point they’ll go offline and nothing will remain of XDefiant apart from the memories of playing a game that was kind of like Call of Duty.

Ubisoft has not been having a good time lately. Amidst tanking stock prices, underperforming games, significant delays, and internal investigations, the embattled company has openly added one more problem to its list of them, which surely must be approaching 99 by now: XDefiant and its financial failure.

XDefiant is Ubisoft’s answer to the hero shooter, and like many post-Overwatch entries in the genre, lacks much in the way of unique selling points to attract those beyond Ubisoft’s dedicated fanbase. The Smash Bros. approach of using factions from all over Ubisoft’s Ubiverse likely contributed to this, as your average gamer will have no idea who the Highwaymen are supposed to be.

XDefiant’s “massive” season two is coming soon, and Ubisoft has revealed everything that’s coming with it, including a new playable faction in Far Cry: New Dawn’s Highwaymen.

The Highwaymen are from the post-apocalyptic world of the Far Cry 5 spin-off, and as such, they have unique gadgets like a Scrap Turret and Saw Launcher. Described as “cocky and lethal,” they’re perfect for aggressive, run-and-gun play.

XDefiant boss Mark Rubin has today boldly proclaimed his Ubisoft shooter game is “absolutely not dying,” which sounds a whole lot like what you’d hear if the game was dying.

XDefiant‘s year one update arrived today, complete with a launch announcement for season two and a roadmap leading up through season four. That doesn’t seem to be what caught most peoples’ attention, though. Instead, buried in the update notes, executive producer Mark Rubin addressed concerns surrounding the title: “Is the game dying? No, the game is absolutely not dying,” Rubin says, noting there are improvements to make, but overall, the game’s doing well.

XDefiant’s nickname as the latest Call of Duty may have been greatly exaggerated, according to a new report.

Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson says that XDefiant‘s outlook is bleak, with the game struggling to maintain 20,000 players across all of its platforms just three months since it finally launched after years of development turmoil. It’s been just six weeks since Ubisoft’s Q1 report when it touted XDefiant’s launch, and now, the lower player numbers has “created tension and anxiety” within the development team. Henderson sources believe “more layoffs are only a matter of time,” according to the report.

XDefiant‘s Y1S1.3 patch has arrived on July 31 and comes packed full of adjustments and updates for the title. Ubisoft’s main focus is on weapon balancing, with the team taking a pass at the weak shotgun archetype, as well as a much-needed MP7 nerf.

All XDefiant shotguns have been tuned, with a significant range boost across the board for the M870, AA-12, Double Barrel and its Sawed-Off variant. Depending on the weapon, shotguns should now be 30 to 40 percent more effective at range, while their mobility and sprint-to-shoot times have also been shortened.

The faith of XDefiant‘s diehard fanbase is beginning to waver. Concerns have continued to grow over the state of the game, with some failing to see how Ubisoft’s highly-touted shooter can survive beyond 12 months.

Ubisoft doesn’t provide concurrent player counts to prove a drop in interest around the title, but there are other signs, such as dwindling Twitch viewership, as pointed out by members of the community on X (formerly Twitter) on July 29. The game launched in May with over 75,000 tuning into various streamers, according to TwitchTracker, but the dropoff in viewership has been sharp with just over 1,000 watching, as of the time of writing.

Assault rifles and LMGs are essential weapons for dominating XDefiant. The assault rifle hits the center point between firepower, magazine size, and mobility, while LMGs sacrifice mobility for hefty magazines and respectable range.

The LMGs and assault rifles in XDefiant are unfortunately not created equal. You need to carefully consider which one you equip to avoid your opponent getting the upper hand on you purely because you chose the weaker gun. This list puts everything into perspective.

XDefiant’s highly anticipated Ranked mode is finally live, and as exciting as that sounds, players are calling out Ubisoft for not giving much thought to setting its rules before the launch.