Ubisoft’s XDefiant Is Shutting Down in 2025
Ubisoft has high hopes for XDefiant, its free-to-play first-person shooter released in May. But now the publisher has announced plans to end the game in June 2025 and shut down the game entirely, according to a source familiar with the matter. Blog post from the publisher’s official website Tuesday.
“Despite an encouraging start, passionate work from the team and a loyal fan base, over the long term we were unable to attract and retain enough players to achieve the level we achieved in a very demanding free-to-play game. level of the FPS market,” Ubisoft chief studio and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert said in a blog post. “As a result, the game is no longer close to achieving the results required for further significant investment and we are announcing that it will be discontinued.”
When will XDefiant shut down?
All XDefiant matchmaking servers will be offline on June 2, 2025.
However, starting immediately, XDefiant registration and downloads will no longer be available. Players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack or made any other in-game purchases within the past 30 days will automatically receive a full refund sometime within the next eight weeks.
The promised third season is still coming in the future, but a timeline for that content has not yet been announced.
What is XDefiant?
XDefiant includes characters from other Ubisoft games, such as Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs.
Featuring a combination of fast-paced gameplay and characters from popular Ubisoft titles such as The Division, Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs, the publisher had hoped that to compete with Call of Duty.
“XDefiant” had 1 million players within the first two and a half hours after its launch in May 2024, and averaged 300,000 simultaneous players in the first 48 hours of launch.
Why is XDefiant shutting down?
But recent reports indicate that the number of concurrent players has dropped to below 20,000 by AugustThat same month, Ubisoft laid off 10 XDefiant developers.
In September, XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin shot down rumors that the game was in danger of shutting down. “I just want to quickly address the state of gaming as to whether gaming is dying. No, gaming is definitely not dying,” Rubin said at the time.
XDefiant’s demise will lead to more layoffs in an already fraught year for the gaming industry. In addition to shutting down the game, Ubisoft’s San Francisco and Osaka teams will also be shut down, as will its Sydney production base. A total of 277 employees are expected to be laid off.
As of September 2024, gaming companies have laid off more than 13,000 employees. In 2023, the gaming industry will lay off more than 11,000 employees.
