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Ubisoft Call of Duty Rival xDefiant “will absolutely not die,” stresses developer

Ubisoft insisted that its Call of Duty competitor xDefiant is performing well despite analyst reports that it has not met expectations.

Mark Rubin, executive producer of xDefiant, said in a blog post that the first-person multiplayer shooter is “by no means doomed,” but that development studio Ubisoft San Francisco is aware that changes are needed.

“I just want to touch briefly on the state of the game, like is it dying,” Rubin said. “No, the game is definitely not dying. We know there are things we need to improve, like netcode and hitreg and adding more content to progression, but the game is doing well.”

“We just want it to be better. And we'll do that by addressing our community's concerns, which has always been the plan. Ubisoft is fully behind us and has allocated more resources to the team to help us achieve that.”

xDefiant is a free-to-play, fast-paced arena shooter game that combines intense gunplay with personalized loadouts and specialized factions. The market it competes in can be incredibly brutal, and perhaps some fans of xDefiant were concerned about its longevity after PlayStation arena shooter Concord was canceled after just two weeks on the market.

Analysts said earlier this year that xDefiant had seen lower engagement than expected after a strong launch in May, although Ubisoft has not released player or revenue numbers. Since xDefiant is available on PC only from the Ubisoft Store, not Steam, we don't have data on concurrent PC player numbers. Concerns also arose when Ubisoft San Francisco laid off staff in August.

In our 7/10 xDefiant review, IGN said, “xDefiant's fundamentals are good, but inconsistent ideas and mechanics prevent it from standing out from the crowd of shooter games.”

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