Ubisoft Is Discontinuing XDefiant, Shutting Down Two Studios

Ubisoft is discontinuing development on its free-to-play shooter XDefiant, the studio announced Wednesday. The online title, which released in May after several delays and playtests, has not been able to retain strong player numbers after a promising launch, the publisher said. As a result, Ubisoft is also shutting down its San Francisco and Osaka studios and ramping down its Sydney production site, with 277 jobs set to be impacted. XDefiant servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, the company said.

Ubisoft is Sunsetting XDefiant

New downloads, player registrations and purchases for XDefiant have been halted, Ubisoft confirmed. Season 3 content, however, will launch as planned, before the game sunsets in June next year.

“Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work, and a committed fan base, we’ve not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market,” Ubisoft said in an announcement post that it shared internally with its teams, as well.

“As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.

“Concretely, that means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still launch, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, out of appreciation for both our dev teams who worked on it and for XDefiant’s active players,” the publisher said.

XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin also announced the game’s shutdown in a post on X, promising full refunds to players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack. “Players who made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded. Those refunds should happen automatically within 8 weeks of today and you can find more details on our official website, http://XDefiant.com,” Rubin said.

Studio Closures, Layoffs

Ubisoft confirmed that almost half of the team working on XDefiant worldwide would be transitioned to other roles within the company, but the game’s discontinuation would lead to the closure of Ubisoft San Francisco and Ubisoft Osaka studios and the ramp down of its Sydney site. The company will lay off 143 staffers at the San Francisco studio, while 134 roles are likely to be made redundant in Osaka and Sydney.

“To those team members leaving Ubisoft, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your work and contributions. Please know that we are committed to supporting you during this transition,” Marie-Sophie de Waubert, chief studios and portfolio officer, said in the announcement.

The company, however, reiterated its commitment to live service games, calling it a “pillar of our strategy,” and citing the successes of its games-as-a-service titles like Rainbow Six, The Crew, and For Honor. “It’s a highly competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles,” Ubisoft said.

XDefiant was announced for PC and consoles in 2021 as a “fast-paced 6-v-6 arena” shooter with faction-based abilities. Initially revealed as a Tom Clancy title, the game later dropped the branding and was marketed under the Ubisoft Originals umbrella. XDefiant hosted a closed beta test in April 2023, with Gadgets 360’s hands-on impressions calling it a “lukewarm experience.”

XDefiant launched on May 21, 2024, and while early player numbers were encouraging, with the shooter hitting a million players within hours of release, the game found it difficult to sustain its popularity amidst a hotly contested first-person shooter space.

Ubisoft’s Struggles in 2024

The discontinuation of the live service title caps a tumultuous year for Ubisoft that saw the company lose more than half its market value. Shares of the French studio have fallen about 40 percent in 2024, with its market capitalisation at about EUR 1.8 billion (roughly Rs. 16,577 crore). In September, the company’s share price tumbled to its lowest in over a decade after it revised its financial targets for FY 2024-25 following weaker-than expected sales of Star Wars Outlaws and a launch delay for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

In October, Bloomberg reported that Tencent Holdings, which held 9.2 percent of Ubisoft’s net voting rights at the end of April, and Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s founding Guillemot family were considering options, including a potential buyout of the company. Following the report, Ubisoft said it “regularly reviews all its strategic options.”