Ubisoft wanted to compete with Call of Duty with its own shooter. However, after a good start, XDefiant fell off and soon suffered from a major cheating problem.
What game is it about? The shooter XDefiant has always reminded its players of the classic “Call of Duty” titles, which still have a large fan community today.
A special feature of the game was the absence of SBMM in XDefiant. The developers consciously left out Skill-Based Match-Making from normal rounds, likely because the system has long been a point of contention among Call of Duty fans.
After the game initially garnered a lot of attention, it quickly fell off. Various issues in the shooter, as well as a major cheating problem, caused frustration for many players. Now, the head has commented on the game’s status in a blog post.
These new things were added with Season 1:
“We just want it to get better”
Why is the head speaking out? Season 2 is approaching for XDefiant. According to the in-game timer of the Battle Pass, it should start on September 24. The head of the game is taking this opportunity to talk about the plans for XDefiant in the next year and also addresses player numbers.
The biggest challenge for the team right now is likely the netcode. The developers are working on ensuring that a hit is indeed a hit and that players feel less like they were already around the corner when they were hit.
To make this happen, the developers have hired additional expert engineers who are knowledgeable in this area. The development team has thus grown. However, fans are most concerned about how the player numbers look. The head is aware of this.
He asks himself the question, “Is the game dying?” and answers it immediately: “No, the game is absolutely not dying. We know that there are things we need to improve, such as netcode/hit registration and adding more content to progression, but the game is doing well. We just want it to get even better.”
In addition to the update, the developers are also showing a new roadmap with additional factions, game modes, and “Quality of Life” improvements for players.
What is the real status of XDefiant? Only the developers really know how the shooter is doing. In the blog post, the developers do not provide specific numbers for XDefiant, but a look at Twitch viewers shows that there are increasingly fewer viewers and streamers interested in the game (via Twitchtracker.com).
On Tuesday, September 17, at peak times, only just over 1,100 viewers were watching the game on Twitch. While one cannot always infer player numbers from the viewers, the community is now worried.
On Reddit, there are even comparisons being made with Anthem and Concord, which had similar posts – including a roadmap just before cancellation. The user Leepysworld even goes so far on Reddit to say: “The game has almost lost all its current relevance in the FPS sector […].”
Whether XDefiant will gain momentum again with the new Season 2 and the upcoming content on the roadmap remains to be seen. Particularly with the strong competition from Call of Duty, this will likely not be easy. Call of Duty has also recently celebrated its largest beta ever: CoD Black Ops 6 had the largest beta ever, but players say it was not due to the quality of the game
