After previously denying reports, Ubisoft has announced it’s ending development on XDefiant and closing down several studios.
While XDefiant had a strong launch when it came out in May, there’s been concern around the free-to-play shooter’s future over recent months.
Ubisoft previously described the game as being ‘behind expectations’, during an earnings call in September, while reports suggested layoffs were feared at Ubisoft San Francisco, as XDefiant struggled to hit 20,000 concurrent players across all platforms.
Despite denying reports of a shutdown just two months ago, Ubisoft has now confirmed it is doing exactly that, and laying off 277 employees across multiple studios.
Ubisoft made the announcement in a post on the company’s website, where it acknowledged the struggles the shooter has faced in the free-to-play space.
Ubisoft’s chief studios and portfolio officer, Marie-Sophie de Waubert, said: ‘Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work, and a committed fanbase, we’ve not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market.
‘As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.’
Will there be refunds for XDefiant?
As such, new downloads, player registrations, and purchases will no longer be available in XDefiant from today. Anyone who downloaded XDefiant before December 3 will still be able to play the shooter, including the planned season three, until June 3, 2025, when the servers will be shut down.
If you bought certain DLC packs within XDefiant after November 3, Ubisoft is also offering refunds to players. You can find more details here.
XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin, who originally refuted reports of the game’s demise, posted a lengthy tweet about the game’s closure on X and confirmed the game had over 15 million players.
‘Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey,’ the post reads. ‘Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue.’
The end of XDefiant comes with some wider consequences. In the same post, Ubisoft confirmed it is shutting down the company’s studios in San Francisco and Osaka, and will ‘ramp down’ its Sydney production site.
While the company states ‘almost half’ of the XDefiant team worldwide will transition to other roles within Ubisoft, 277 employees across these three studios will lose their jobs. This comes after several rounds of layoffs at other Ubisoft studios this past year.
Is Ubisoft giving up on live service games?
Despite XDefiant’s failure, Ubisoft has reaffirmed live service games ‘remain a pillar of our strategy’ and that it will ‘apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles’.
It doesn’t, however, indicate what it thinks these lessons might be. Sony, who together with Ubisoft have been the most enthusiastic about live service games – despite very little success in that space – were similarly unrepentant following the closure of Concord, even though that also led to multiple studio closures.
Both publishers’ obsession with live service titles has brought them nothing but trouble but even if they had decided to move away from them, that’s something they’d try to avoid admitting in public.
It sounds like more layoffs might be on the horizon too. ‘We are determined to take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth,’ the Ubisoft post states, adding that it will continue ‘doing targeted restructuring when necessary’.
Ubisoft has been in financial trouble over recent months. The company’s share price dropped to its lowest point in almost 11 years in September, following low sales of Star Wars Outlaws. Assassin’s Creed Shadows was then delayed from last month to February next year, leading to reports it was considering a buyout from Tencent.
For now, it seems the company is doubling down on Assassin’s Creed games, in a bid to turnaround the company’s fortunes, although it remains to be seen if this ‘restructuring’ could affect other planned titles.
Between the long delayed Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake, the Splinter Cell remake, The Division 3, and Beyond Good And Evil 2, Ubisoft has a lot of games in development that have been problematic long before release.
Ubisoft has also cancelled a number of games over recent years, including free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland and a sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising.
Ubisoft hasn’t had the best year (Ubisoft)
XDefiant closure costs 277 jobs but Ubisoft is still pushing live service games