XDefiant is supposed to be the major competitor to Call of Duty. Now, the head explains why it has been so quiet around the shooter lately.
Which game is it about? XDefiant is an arena shooter from Ubisoft, which some fans hoped could be the long-awaited “Call of Duty Killer.” The shooter was released in May and has since been expanded with 2 seasons that brought new content.
XDefiant is a PvP shooter where various arena modes like Domination and Team Deathmatch are played. The playable factions, all of which have different abilities, are based on well-known Ubisoft game series like The Division, Splinter Cell, and Watch Dogs.
The major feature of XDefiant compared to Call of Duty is that there is no skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) in the casual game modes.
Here you can see a short trailer for XDefiant:
Rumors say things are bad for XDefiant, a shutdown is near
What is currently going on with XDefiant? For weeks, various sources have repeated that Ubisoft is dissatisfied with the success of XDefiant and that the shooter is in danger of being shut down prematurely.
- Industry insider Tom Henderson reported in August on Insider-Gaming that Ubisoft expects player numbers to increase with Season 3, otherwise XDefiant could lose its post-launch support.
- In September, it was said that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had noted that XDefiant had fallen short of expectations.
The latest leaks now claim that XDefiant will be shut down after Season 4 if the shooter does not have enough players by then (via X.com).
XDefiant head already discusses plans for year 2
What does the head say about the rumors? Mark Rubin, executive producer and therefore the head of XDefiant, has now commented on X.com about the current situation of the shooter and what the current plan looks like.
Rubin stated that there are currently no plans to shut down the shooter after Season 4. He also mentioned that he was in meetings just last week to discuss plans for year 2.
Rubin explains that they are currently focusing the developer team on improving the technical experience of the game and creating more content for Seasons 3 and 4. They want to, among other things, improve the much-criticized netcode.
The player numbers are currently low for him because there is little marketing being done. They want to give the team time to improve the game before spending a lot of money on marketing to attract new players and bring back old players.
Mark Rubin has commented several times on social media about the situation of XDefiant. Just in September, he said there that the game is doing well, and the developers just want it to do even better: “No, the game is absolutely not dying” head of the Call of Duty competitor comments on player numbers
