After a brilliant start, things are no longer looking so rosy for XDefiant, according to a new insider report. If the turnaround is not successful, this could have a lasting impact on future content plans.
In his latest exclusive report, the well-known and very reliable insider Tom Henderson focuses on the current shooter XDefiant from Ubisoft, which has basically had an excellent start. The game had over a million players within the first 2.5 hours after launch and over 8 million gamers viewed the title in the first week alone. But the success story may be short-lived.
Although those responsible were initially really enthusiastic about the title, the picture is said to have changed in the meantime. Just six weeks after the financial report for the first quarter of the financial year with the corresponding statements, the number of players has apparently fallen noticeably.
According to Henderson, Ubisoft’s management has now set the goal of increasing player numbers by Season 3 of the shooter. If that doesn’t happen, the post-launch plans for XDefiant could still be scrapped and the title would probably die a quicker death than a slower one.
Internally, the optimism surrounding XDefiant has long since evaporated, which is not only attributed to the declining number of players, but also to the fact that gamers are not spending as much money as expected. According to one source, XDefiant is currently struggling to reach 20,000 players simultaneously across all platforms. Another source even emphasized that Ubisoft would probably be happy with this number if it were even reached.
There is also reportedly growing concern within the development team that the current development could lead to layoffs being just a matter of time. The pressure is already on, as 45 jobs were cut at Ubisoft San Francisco earlier this month, including 10 who were said to have worked on XDefiant.
Ubisoft is making some changes to XDefiant’s Ranked mode, which are explained in this video.
