Skip To...
In news that really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, Ubisoft’s free-to-play live-service shooter, XDefiant, is being put down. Or, rather, it’s being “sunset” – the charming term the industry is desperately trying to standardize. But while XDefiant‘s demise is a shame for the fans who have invested time and money into it, the real tragedy is the layoffs that Ubisoft is making as a result.
Act of Defiance
Until very recently, Ubisoft was adamant that XDefiant wasn’t shutting down. The game’s Executive Producer, Mark Rubin, admitted in October that the title’s “numbers are down”, but insisted that there were no plans to shut the game down after Season 4. Showing once again the fickle nature of the industry, Rubin once again had to take to X to admit that, actually, XDefiant is shutting down. Indeed, while Season 3 will apparently be released, there’s no mention of Season 4. Even more telling, however, is Rubin’s apology that:
“Starting today (December 3, 2024), new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available[…]For those who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack, you’ll receive a full refund. Players who made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded.”
In effect, despite Ubisoft’s defiance, XDefiant is already on end-of-life support. It lasted less than 9 months following its release in May 2024. It’s a little less ignominious than the Concord debacle, Sony’s live-service FPS that was killed after barely two weeks, but only just.
The bizarre thing is, Ubisoft knew full well that it was entering an extremely competitive market dominated by ludicrously successful titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone. Rubin even congratulated Ubisoft’s leadership for “taking that chance” on “diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play.” There’s a fine line between bravery and recklessness, however, and given the over-saturation of the free-to-play market, it’s hard to imagine the devs working on XDefiant had high hopes it would be a stellar success.
And, crucially, this isn’t taking a risk on people, on passion projects, like publishers such as Devolver Digital do. This is risk-taking chasing a trend that has proven time and time again to be unsustainable. This is risk-taking at the expense of people. Because, tragically, it isn’t the leadership team that greenlit XDefiant that suffers from the game’s demise. No, once again that would be the development team that worked hard to bring it to life.
The Human Cost
On the same day as Mark Rubin’s admission of defeat, Ubisoft’s Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert released a statement. Whilst reiterating much of what Rubin said regarding the plans for XDefiant, she also touched on what would happen to the development teams that worked on the game.
In short, the destruction is significant, and the human cost is depressing. Ubisoft’s studios in San Francisco and Osaka will close. Ubisoft’s Sydney office will “ramp down” production, so may well follow suit. According to de Waubert, 143 people will be laid off from the San Francisco office and 134 from the Osaka and Sydney offices. 277 people losing their jobs at this time of year is about the worst Christmas news you could imagine.
Much of the discussion regarding XDefiant‘s demise will likely center around the fragility of the live-service model. But, in my opinion, we should be more concerned about the poor folks who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
Of course, being made redundant is always grim. The current job market in the games industry, however, is appallingly bleak, making it even worse. Estimates place the number of layoffs this year at 14,000, but in reality, this is a significant underestimate. Many publishers don’t like to reveal details, so those layoffs don’t make it into the figures. What’s more, at least 10,500 people lost their jobs in 2023. Again, likely a major underestimate.
Enough Is Enough
I know I’m not alone in thinking that this madness has to stop. Human beings are not resources that can take constant upheaval and crippling uncertainty. Anecdotally, I know of many skilled, experienced developers who have chosen to leave the games industry for good. The situation has just become too dire, too unpredictable. Nobody can blame them.
Until the AAA industry can figure out a more sustainable development model and resist the temptation to chase the live-service gravy train, these failures will keep on occurring. The people who worked on the games will suffer the consequences. For now, we can only wish the affected Ubisoft developers the best of luck securing new positions soon.
