Rank 6: Defiance
Developer: Fawkes | Platform: PC | Release date: April 18, 2025 | Payment model: Free2Play | Status: Officially released
That developer Fawkes (the current rights holders of games like Shaiya, Last Chaos, Desert Operations) wants to bring back the SciFi MMORPG Defiance, which was discontinued in April 2021, came out of nowhere. However, it became clear early on that fans should temper their expectations.
On the one hand, because the team has to get acquainted with a foreign, poorly documented game. Therefore, the launch in April was also quite bumpy. On the other hand, because the small studio does not have the capacity to take on more than maintaining the already known content in the foreseeable future – aside from fine-tuning here and there.
In the revival, you can therefore expect “only” the latest version of Defiance 2013, with servers in North America (plus corresponding performance) and a free-to-play model with optional microtransactions.
Since Defiance was already a rather generic, mediocre MMORPG in its prime, which could primarily cause a stir due to its planned synergy with the television series of the same name, its return is probably only a real highlight of the year for fans. Impressions from the community can be found here: MMO shooter was Destiny before Destiny existed, now celebrates its comeback: “I missed it so much”
