Clearly, Ubisoft has a series of setbacks and an accumulation of bad news. Despite popular new games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora or Star Wars Outlaws, a new misfortune has befallen the company.
It's a real spiral of misfortunes that has befallen Ubisoft this year. The French video game company has suffered from repeated misfortunes since the controversies of 2020, which seem to never end. Between the working atmosphere criticized by employees, the increasing decline in sales and the postponement of certain titles like Assassin’s Creed Shadowsnothing is going well at Ubisoft.
This is confirmed by this new turnaround: the shutdown of a game, even though it was released barely six months ago. XDefiantactually published in May 2024, will see its online servers closed very soon, and permanently.
A new video game failure for Ubisoft
XDefiantan FPS which was rather appreciated by critics when it was released, is on the verge of disappearing. A radical decision which reflects yet another failure for Ubisoft, even though it is the origin of many video game classics like Far Cry, Assassin’s Creedor even Just Dance.
The reason for this abrupt end: too few players and insufficient in-game purchases. The news has just been shared on social networks by the official account of XDefiant this Wednesday, December 4, via a post on X:
The post notably includes a long message from Mark Rubin, the executive producer of the game, which presents itself as a real mea culpa to the players. “Many free games take time to find their footing and become profitable”specifies the latter. “It's a long road that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were willing to travel until very recently. But, unfortunately, the journey has become too cumbersome to reasonably continue.”
Once again, mass layoffs
XDefiant's servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, but only half of the development team will continue to work on the project. From December 4, 2024, it will no longer be possible to download the game or make in-game purchases, which already condemns the gameplay and player experience. Please note that all in-game purchases made less than 30 days ago will be refunded by Ubisoft.
According to independent journalist Stephen Totila, the closure of XDefiant could lead “nearly 277 layoffs”. On his post X, he adds that the Ubisoft studios in San Francisco and Osaka should be closed soon.
Marie-Sophie de Waubert, head of the Parisian studio Ubisoft, sent an email to the employees concerned, an email now made public: “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.”
News that sounds familiar to our ears, Ubisoft having regularly thanked its employees during the year 2024. Faced with these consecutive layoffs, the rumors of takeover of the company are gaining more and more depth and the studios seem more than ever in danger.
