Michael Beckwith 
In an update on the future of XDefiant, developer Ubisoft San Francisco has stated that, despite comments to the contrary, the game is doing well and isn’t on the cusp of dying any time soon.
Ubisoft’s free-to-play FPS launched just four months ago in May and is set to begin its second season of content later this month on September 25. Recently, however, it was reported that interest in XDefiant hasn’t been as strong as Ubisoft had hoped. This came after generally mixed reviews of the game from both fans and critics.
Metrics show that Twitch viewership for the game has sharply declined since release. On top of that, Ubisoft San Francisco was hit with a round of layoffs in August and, according to Insider Gaming, it’s been said XDefiant has been struggling to hit 200,000 concurrent players across all platforms. This has led to questions regarding the future of the game, and whether it makes financial sense to continue supporting it.
Not to mention Ubisoft’s share price has continued to drop since the beginning of the year, with not even Star Wars Outlaws helping to bolster things. It would be easy to assume, then, that XDefiant’s days are numbered, but a statement from Ubisoft San Francisco assures this isn’t the case.
Is XDefiant dying?
Ubisoft is not shutting down XDefiant and outlined its plans for the next three seasons of content.
In a blog post on the game’s official site, despite acknowledging fears among players, developers stated the game is doing well. They didn’t share any exact figures. Regardless, Ubisoft itself still intends to support the game for some time.
“The game is doing well. We just want it to do better. And we do that by addressing the concerns of our community which has always been the plan. Ubisoft is very much behind us and has allocated more resources to the team in order for us to do that,” the post reads.
In addition to simply “not dying,” developers outlined how XDefiant is set to improve over the coming months.
The first big change is XDefiant’s netcode, which the developer has been tweaking since the game’s launch. However, it has admitted “we still have a ways to go” and considering the amount of work required, it can’t give a firm estimate for when its plans for the netcode come to fruition. Although it is hoping to have something ready by the end of season 2.
The second major improvement is simply adding more content to progression. The accompanying roadmap reveals Ubisoft San Francisco has a lot planned in this regard for the next few seasons. For season 2, it aims to improve battle pass progress speed and objectives that progress weapon XP. This is in addition to all the new season 2 content, such as a new faction, new weapons, new maps, and a new Bomb gameplay mode. Seasons 3 and 4 are also slated to add a new faction each, alongside more weapons, more maps, and more gameplay modes.
This optimism for XDefiant’s future makes for a stark contrast with reports and fan discourse surrounding the game.
