In the lead up to the launch of XDefiant, the arena shooter was branded the “Call of Duty killer,” but that narrative has quickly changed. After claims that XDefiant is shutting down with Season 4, Ubisoft has provided their response.
Earlier this week, industry insider, Shaun Weber claimed that “Ubisoft research team is actively asking their tester to have another In-House test session and give/repeat their feedback. Multiple sources told that its possible that the game will end its Support after season 4 if they cant get enough players.”
This corroborates a previous report from Insider Gaming which stated that “Ubisoft San Francisco has until the end of Season 3 of XDefiant,” to improve the player count according to multiple sources from Ubisoft themselves.
XDefiant isn’t going anywhere for now
Executive Producer at XDefiant, Mark Rubin, has hit back at the rumours circulating on X with his own post. Rubin explains, “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.”
He outlines immediate plans for XDefiant’s future, focusing on improving the technical experience and adding more content for Season 3 and Season 4.
Rubin admits that the player count has dropped, but puts that down to “very little marketing” to give the development team 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.”
However, Rubin’s statement has done very little to bring the rumour mill to a halt. As the owner of Insider Gaming, Tom Henderson, went on to point out, “planning year 2 at this stage in budget meetings is pretty standard and doesn’t guarantee it’ll be greenlit.”
Despite getting off to a promising start, what isn’t disputed on both sides is the fact that XDefiant is in decline. Only time will tell what the future of the game will look like.
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