XDefiant hasn’t had a fruitful history ever since its release back on May 21, 2024. Ubisoft’s liver-service shooter notably entered a crowded market and has been struggling ever since. Now, it’s currently in its 2nd Season, but rumors have started popping up that XDefiant will shut down for good after its 4th Season. To that, Executive Producer Mark Rubin has responded that they have no plans to shut down XDefiant. Rest easy, for now.
However, not all are black-and-white. XDefiant is still in troubled waters, and there’s more to Mark Rubin’s statement. Here’s the rest of what he said:
“To be crystal clear there are no plans to shut down after season 4. I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4.
We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”
So despite the plans to continue and forge on toward XDefiant‘s 2nd year, it’s not performing well. Rubin apparently blames the marketing for the rather low numbers. That means they have to shell out more money to bring more players in.
That would be a big risk especially if it doesn’t achieve the results they want for Season 3 and Season 4. Ubisoft’s current situation also doesn’t help. There are numerous considerations for a company buyout in place after the poor performance of Star Wars: Outlaws and the scandal-induced delay for Assassin’s Creed: Shadow.
Rubin’s confidence does cast a net of safety for the future of XDefiant, but whether that safety lasts remains to be seen. After all, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is due on October 25. The Activision behemoth is poised to make XDefiant‘s recovery more difficult than it already is.
XDefiant certainly did not meet its expectations as a CoD-killer, rather it was the other way around. That might just get reinforced again soon. For now, XDefiant players and fans can only hold their bated breaths while waiting for what Ubisoft has in its sleeves.
