Ubisoft officially puts end to XDefiant in 2025the publisher announced Tuesday, and all new purchases and registrations are immediately halted. As part of this judgment, the publisher plans to close its studios production facilities in San Francisco and Osaka, while reducing its Sydney site, and up to 277 employees will lose their jobs. About half of the XDefiant team will be assigned to other tasks.
The full message is available below (currently still only in English, IGN France translation).
Today I wanted to share with you the difficult decision we made to stop development of XDefiant.
Despite an encouraging start, the team's passionate work and an engaged fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain enough players over the long term to compete at the level we are aiming for in the market. very demanding free-to-play FPS. As a result, the game is too far from achieving the results required to allow for significant new investment, and we are announcing that we will abandon it.
Concretely, this means that from today onwards, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still be launched, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, as a thank you to the development teams who worked on it and to active XDefiant players.
Unfortunately, the shutdown of XDefiant comes with difficult consequences for the teams working on this game. Even though almost half of the the closure of our production studios in San Francisco and Osaka and the gradual reduction of our production site in Sydney, with the departure of 143 people in San Francisco and 134 people likely to leave in Osaka and Sydney. To the team members who are leaving Ubisoft, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for their work and contributions. Please know that we are committed to supporting you during this transition.
Developing gaming experiences as a service remains a pillar of our strategy, and we have achieved significant successes, such as Rainbow Six, The Crew and For Honor, among others. This is a very competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned from XDefiant to our future live titles.
Globally, we are committed to taking the necessary steps to put the business back on the path of growth, innovation and creativity and ensure we can help you succeed. This means continuing to radically evolve our mindset around production and business practices, which we will tell you about soon, and carrying out targeted restructuring where necessary. I know the situation raises questions and expectations, and we will keep you informed regularly and transparently.
I sincerely thank you for your continued dedication as we navigate this difficult time together.
XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin also shared a message thanking fans and saying he was “heartbroken.” He also gave details on refundsstating that all purchases made in the last 30 days will be fully refunded and that people who purchased the Ultimate Founder's Pack will also be refunded. Reimbursements should be made automatically within 8 weeks, he said.
I am unfortunately 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 continue to release Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025.
Players who purchased the Ultimate Founder's Pack will receive a full refund. Players who made purchases within the last 30 days will also be refunded. These refunds should happen automatically within 8 weeks from today and you can find more details on our official website, http://XDefiant.com.
A few years ago, Ubisoft and the SF Dev team embarked on a bold adventure to develop a new arcade shooter called XDefiant. From the start, it was 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 gaming experience, but we were also diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play. to-play. And for this, I would like to congratulate not only the development team but also the management of Ubisoft for taking this risk!
Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. Many free-to-play games take time to find their feet 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 journey has become too long to be reasonably continued.
I am of course heartbroken to write this post. Yes, this game has been a personal passion of mine for years and yes, I know that not every challenge leads to victory, but I also want to recognize all the developers who are affected by this closure. Each of them is a real person with a real life separate from ours and they all put a lot of their passion into creating this game. I hope they can be proud of what they accomplished. I know I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such an amazing team! A team that really outdid itself.
And what they have accomplished is truly remarkable. We broke the internal record for the fastest game to surpass 5 million users and ultimately over 15 million players played our game! This is something to be extremely proud of, especially considering how difficult the genre is. Thank you to all the developers who put their passion into this game!
If there's one thing I hope we all take away from this experience, it's the importance of open and honest communication between developers and players. This “gamer first” mentality, along with the respectful, non-toxic conversations between developers and players, was one of the defining differences that made XDefiant so special. Since my very first post on XDefiant, this is 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 to the incredible community that has grown around XDefiant. Your passion, creativity and dedication have inspired us every step of the way.
With all my love and respect,
Mark
XDefiant joins Concord as the latest Live Service game to abruptly shut down shortly after launch. Unlike Concord, however, XDefiant will benefit from a bit of grace, its servers not having to not close before June 3, 2025. Ubisoft also plans to release Season 3, but downloads and purchases will no longer be possible.
Despite mixed reviews, XDefiant got off to a fast start, attracting a million unique players in the space of two and a half hours, but its momentum quickly dissipated. In October, Rubin acknowledged that player numbers were declining, while denying persistent rumors of closure.
The impending closure of The collapse in the stock price reportedly led the Guillemot family and Tencent to consider taking the company private. It's not the only publisher to have struggled in 2024, as game developers of all sizes have faced abrupt closures and layoffs.
Kat Bailey is news editor at IGN.
