Some time ago, Ubisoft announced a new arena shooter, Tom Clancy’s XDefiant. It had become rather quiet around him at first, but now there is news again. Apparently, Ubisoft has dropped the Tom Clancy branding.
Originally announced as Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, Ubisoft’s arena shooter in 6v6 format is now supposed to be released simply under the name XDefiant; In any case, in a new blog entry by the studio, Tom Clancy is no longer mentioned.
The blog entry mentioned basically announces the first larger-scale test sessions. For these so-called insider sessions, Ubisoft has now started sending out invitations; more gamers will be allowed in the coming weeks.
Interesting: Although a name change was not officially communicated, now only XDefiant is mentioned without Tom Clancy. And that should probably have a concrete impact on the game itself as a result. The arena shooter relies on different factions and could now get those outside of the other Tom Clancy brands like Rainbow Six or Splinter Cell.
When the announcement was made, the fast shooter was also announced with punk rock influences – a fact that fans of brands like Splinter Cell, The Division or Ghost Recon didn’t necessarily find suitable for these brands. Ubisoft may have reacted to this criticism in this way and is largely ignoring Tom Clancy.
It has already been confirmed that factions far from the Clancy franchises will now be included. It has not yet been officially announced which one is specifically involved, but content inspired by Assassin’s Creed, for example, appears possible. Nonetheless, Clancy-inspired factions will continue to be represented in XDefiant.
XDefiant does not have a release period yet; the shooter will be released for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Amazon Luna and Stadia. There should be cross-play functionality across all platforms.