Ubisoft is discontinuing its free-to-play shooter XDefiantUbisoft announced on Tuesday. The servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, but the game will no longer be available for download and player registration will be closed. Despite the sunset, XDefiant Players will gain access to Season 3 content at some point in the “near future.” Nearly 300 employees – 143 in the San Francisco office and 134 at Ubisoft's Osaka and Sydney locations – will be laid off. The other half XDefiant The production team will take on other roles at Ubisoft. said Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert.
“Despite an encouraging start, the team's passionate work and a committed fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long term to compete at the desired level in the very demanding free-to-play game FPS market”, wrote de Waubert in an internal memo posted on the Ubisoft website. “As a result, the game is too far from achieving the required results to support further significant investment and we announce that we are ceasing it.”
With XDefiant Following the shutdown and hundreds of layoffs, Ubisoft announced that it would completely close its production studios in San Francisco and Osaka. Insider Gaming reported that a “skeleton crew” is maintained keep XDefiant runs until it is completely closed.
XDefiant Players who purchased the $69.99 Ultimate Founder's Pack will reportedly receive a full, automatic refund XDefiant Executive producer Mark Rubin in a letter to the community. Any purchases made within the last 30 days will also be refunded. According to a Ubisoft FAQ“The Founder's Pack and Founder's Pack Elite are not eligible for refunds.” Rubin said players should expect refunds within eight weeks.
XDefiant was released on May 21 this year after the project was announced in 2021. At launch, the game appeared to be a success: it reportedly reached 1 million players within hours of its official release, according to Insider Gaming. No official player or revenue figures were released, but Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during an investor call in September that the game had not met expectations. In October, Rubin posted on X that numbers fell due to “very little marketing”, a strategy aimed at “getting the game to a better place” before ramping up marketing to attract new and former players. He wrote that he was “crystal clear” that there were no plans to close XDefiant after the fourth season according to a report from Insider Gaming.
said in its last earnings report at the end of October Ubisoft reported a nearly 20% drop in revenuebut engagement metrics for its games had increased. Ubisoft also reported that the company has cut more than 2,000 employees in the past 24 months – a number that is likely a mix of layoffs and voluntary departures. Ubisoft had 18,666 employees as of September, with the company reportedly “on track” to further reduce costs. (Employee retention was good – “close to historical levels.”) Star Wars Outlaws performed below average, Ubisoft said, but remained silent on the status of XDefiant – so quiet about the game that an analyst asked Guillemont about the game's waning success. “XDefiant is falling short of our expectations, but the games-as-a-service strategy remains core,” Guillemont said at the time. That statement still seems true: de Waubert said in Tuesday's note to employees that games-as-a-service remains “a pillar” of Ubisoft's strategy, citing successes with Rainbow Six, The Crew and For Honor.
