The multiplayer shooter XDefiant was launched in March this year, with high hopes of finally competing with the Call of Duty series. The PvP shooter featuring characters from the Ubisoft universe got off to a good start, but soon found itself struggling with declining player numbers. And although the head of the XDefiant team assured players a month ago that the game would not be discontinued, Mark Rubin has now announced the closure of the free-2-play title.
Despite an encouraging start, the passionate work of the team and a dedicated fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain a sufficient number of players to compete in the demanding free-to-play FPS market. As a result, the game is too far away from achieving the results required to justify further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be discontinuing the game
- reads an announcement on the discontinuation of XDefiant on the Ubisoft website's homepage.
Although the XDefiant servers will be shut down on June 3, 2025 and the game will no longer be available for download from the Ubisoft Store, players who still have the title installed will be able to continue playing the multiplayer shooter until its final demise. The content of the third season will still be made available online. Anyone who bought the Ultimate Edition of XDefiant at the time will get their money back. The same applies to players who purchased cosmetic items from the XDefiant in-game store within the last 30 days.
Ubisoft will also close its San Francisco and Osaka studios due to the failure of XDefiant, while the Ubisoft Sydney team will be reduced in size. A total of 277 Ubisoft employees are said to have lost their jobs, while others have been transferred to other Ubisoft studios as part of the closures (buy PDP Victrix Pro BFG Wireless Controller for Xbox and Windows 10/11 PC at Amazon).