“The ordeal became too overwhelming”
While we had an enjoyable experience with Ubisoft’s XDefiant upon its debut as a free-to-play shooter back in May, we’ve been hearing rumors and speculation ever since about the game potentially “dying” due to a shrinking player base.
Plans to conclude XDefiant were dismissed just two months ago, but regrettably, Ubisoft has now officially decided to cease the game. It has already been removed from the Xbox Store, although the servers will remain operational until June 3rd, 2025.
In a message posted on social media, it was clarified that the free-to-play model “became too overwhelming” to sustain:
“Free-to-play, particularly, is a long path. Many free-to-play games take a significant amount of time to establish themselves and become successful. It’s a lengthy journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were willing to undertake until very recently. However, the path became too overwhelming to reasonably sustain.”
As previously noted, we genuinely enjoyed our time with XDefiant over the last few months, reflecting back to its launch that it had a “very promising beginning” and appeared poised for a bright future on Xbox and beyond.
There’s no doubt that its popularity has diminished since then, so sadly the final months of effort that went into its development are going down the drain after just six months. It’s unfortunate for the developers and the game’s fans!
Surprised to learn that XDefiant is shutting down already? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he dedicates his time to covering the latest developments in gaming.