In the beginning, XDefiant had all the ingredients needed for a successful free-to-play shooter. The community praised the fast-paced combat, unique abilities, and the range of maps available to play. The hype around the game has gone stale and developer transparency has dwindled. Thanks to a new report, we can now take a peek behind the XDefiant curtain.
Ubisoft’s Q3 2023-2024 earnings report revealed that XDefiant was scheduled to release by the end of March, 2024. With just a week left of this month, all we’ve had is radio silence from the studio, so it’s safe to assume that this release window will also be missed.
Another missed deadline and Call of Duty comparison later…
According to Insider Gaming, XDefiant has missed numerous internal targets in the past couple of years. The development team are reportedly becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress and “the game’s shortcomings stem from the executive’s pursuit of trying to copy Call of Duty, rather than building their own game.”
One source reiterated this, saying “the never-ending hunt to chase CoD and add pointless stuff always breaks the current build.”
The Executive Producer of XDefiant, Mark Rubin, has taken to X to respond to a user who says they don’t want XDefiant to be another Call of Duty reskin. Rubin says, “nothing about our delay is due to any new features. In fact not much has changed from a gameplay standpoint. The delay has been due to the tech issues we’ve talked about. Whoever said chasing CoD in Tom’s report was major eyeroll”
After extensive playtests and multiple delays already, it’s unknown when XDefiant will release. Whether or not the comparisons to Call of Duty are accurate, there’s no doubt that Ubisoft’s upcoming FPS has missed a critical release window as MW2’s lifecycle wound down. However, we will have to see how XDefiant stacks up when the game eventually releases.
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