XDefiant may have attracted players in decent numbers in its early weeks, but as the months have rolled by, Ubisoft’s free-to-play first-person shooter has continued to backslide. Now, with an ever-dwindling player base and the game itself showing no signs of recovery, Ubisoft is pulling the plug on the whole operation, contrary to recent suggestions by the game’s developer.
Ubisoft has announced that XDefiant is shutting down. Starting today, new downloads will no longer be allowed, while servers will remain active for existing players only until June 3. Season 3 content will be released soon as scheduled, while anyone who purchased the Founder’s Pack – or anyone who made any in-game purchases within the last 30 days – will be fully refunded.
“Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey,” executive producer Mark Rubin says. “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 make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue.”
A report published by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson also claims that alongside the game’s closure, Ubisoft is also shuttering its development team at Ubisoft San Francisco, as well as its Osaka studio. The resulting layoffs will reportedly result in 170-180 job cuts.
In his message announcing the game’s shuttering, executive producer Mark Rubin wrote, “I am, of course, heartbroken to have to be writing this post. 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. Each and every one of them is a real person with a real life separate from our own and they have all put so much of their own passion into making this game. And I hope that they can be proud of what they did achieve. I know that I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such a great team! A team that really punched above its weight class.”
XDefiant is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. As per Rubin, the game’s lifetime playerbase has crossed 15 million players.
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