Ubisoft has announced they will be ending support for the free-to-play fps title XDefiant and shutting it down a little over a year after the title had gone live. In the process of doing so, production studios in both San Francisco and Osaka are set to be closed, with an additional studio in Sydney expected to be “ramped down”.
In a note to investors, it was stated that the game was being shuttered after a “thorough review of the game’s performance, profitability, and market conditions.” Ubisoft also stated their intention to be more selective with R&D Investments in the future. This comes amid concerns that several Ubisoft projects such as Star Wars Outlaws underperformed, along with a string of similar projects such as canceled battle royale Ghost Recon Frontlines, that either failed to materialize or saw lackluster reception and sales.
XDefiant was released on May 21st, 2024, and will remain live until June 3rd, 2025. The title was Ubisofts attempt at a hero shooter drawing from several titles in the Tom Clancy universe including Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and The Division.
In a message to players, Ubisoft has stated that the process of shelving the game is already underway, with new downloads, new registrations, and purc hases now being prohibited. Despite this, Ubisoft still has plans to release Season 3 of the game but will be issuing refunds for purchases of the Ultimate Founders pack as well as any transactions conducted after November 3rd, 2024.
The closure of studios will see a large number of people transition to new roles with Ubisoft. It is expected that 277 employees will ultimately depart the company in another round of layoffs before the end of an already tumultuous year for the game industry. The company wrote of this, stating:
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.
Despite this outcome, Ubisoft has stated that it will continue to place the games as a service model as a “central pillar” of its strategy moving forward. The company noted the success they have seen in the past with more popular titles such as Rainbow Six: Seige, and The Crew as evidence of how successful the formula can be when the games find an audience. In that vein, XDefiant was not able to maintain enough players to remain viable, hence the decision was made to discontinue it. They stated:
Although XDefiant generated initial excitement it did not retain a large enough player base to establish it as a viable competitor in the free-to-play first-person-shooter genre nor to support the company’s continued investment in its development,” added the company. “Ubisoft will apply the lessons learned from XDefiant to future free-to-play titles.
Personally, I only played the game for about a week during my initial review, for which the game received a 2/10. In my review, I stated that as a game it “fails on almost every metric,” going on to say “Its shooter, the most important part, is poorly designed, with bad level design and even worse gunplay.” You can read my full review here.
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