Ubisoft is discontinuing XDefiant and closing two studios

Ubisoft will stop developing its free-to-play shooter XDefiant, the studio announced on Wednesday. The online title, which released in May after several delays and playtests, has failed to maintain strong player numbers after a promising launch, the publisher said. As a result, Ubisoft is also closing its studios in San Francisco and Osaka and phasing out its production site in Sydney, impacting 277 jobs. 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 confirms. However, Season 3 content will launch as planned before the game ends in June next year.

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

“As a result, the game is too far from achieving the results necessary to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be terminating it.

“In concrete terms, this means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 is still launching and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, in appreciation of both our development teams who worked on it and the active players of XDefiant,” the publisher said.

XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin also announced the game’s closure in a post on X, promising full refunds to players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack. “Players who have made purchases within the last 30 days will also receive a full refund. These refunds should occur automatically within 8 weeks from today and you can find more details on our official website, Rubin said.

Studio closures, layoffs

Ubisoft confirmed that almost half of the team working on the Sydney location. The company will lay off 143 employees at its San Francisco studio, while 134 positions are likely to be cut in Osaka and Sydney.

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

However, the company reiterated its commitment to live service games, calling it a “pillar of our strategy,” citing the successes of its games-as-a-service titles such as Rainbow Six, The Crew and For Honor. “It’s a very 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 reaching one million players within hours of release, the game found it difficult to maintain its popularity amid a hotly contested first-person shooter room.

Ubisoft’s battle in 2024

The discontinuation of the live service title caps a tumultuous year for Ubisoft, which saw the company lose more than half of its market value. The French studio’s shares are down about 40 percent in 2024, with a market capitalization of about 1.8 billion euros (about Rs. 16,577 crore). In September, the company’s share price fell to its lowest level in more than a decade after it revised its financial targets for the 2024-2025 financial year following weaker-than-expected sales of Star Wars Outlaws and a delay in the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows .

In October, Bloomberg reported that Tencent Holdings, which owned 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 possible buyout of the company. Following the report, Ubisoft said it is “regularly evaluating all of its strategic options.”