Hannan Mundia 
XDefiant has been in an awkward limbo for some time now and has been slapped with yet another delay, but its release date may not be all that far away.
XDefiant, now just “XDefiant” after dropping the Tom Clancy branding, is a free-to-play first-person shooter produced and developed by Ubisoft. While the game was initially revealed in 2021, it has since gone through multiple beta periods and was, at one point, one of the top games streamed on Twitch and was heavily promoted, including being added to events like the World’s Greatest Gamer.
However, the game has had a rocky development cycle, which has resulted in multiple delays. With the release date being shoved back further and further, the interest surrounding XDefiant has mellowed considerably, raising the question of whether the game can bounce back from the gameplay drought it finds itself in.
What is Ubisoft’s shooter XDefiant?
XDefiant is a squad-based FPS developed by Ubisoft.
Like Valorant and Apex Legends, XDefiant has a variety of abilities and weapons players can utilize. The game’s fast-paced movement and distinctive style saw it become one of the most-watched games on Twitch, overtaking Twitch staples like Warzone.
Dropping the Tom Clancy branding and becoming a “Ubisoft Original” allows XDefiant to include characters and themes from other Ubisoft games, including the Ghosts from Ghost Recon, Echelon from Splinter Cell, and the Outcasts and Cleaners from The Division games. Factions from Far Cry and DedSec from Watchdogs 2 will also join the fray.
Playable characters, dubbed Defiants, have customizable traits, abilities, devices, weapons, and items. This freedom allows players to personalize their favorite characters however they see fit. These characters are used across multiple game modes similar to those seen in Overwatch 2 and Team Fortress 2.
XDefiant release date details
XDefiant is slated for a Q4 2024 release according to Ubisoft’s internal documents, but it doesn’t have a specific release date.
Ubisoft initially planned for the game to be released in October 2023. However, it was delayed and the new launch window, according to the company’s Q3 2024 earnings report, is Q4 2024. On March 29, 2024, it was announced that a planned March 2024 release had been nixed.
The announcement came within days of a report from Insider Gaming about a “Boy’s Club” of Ubisoft executives who caused problems throughout the game’s development. In addition to the reported toxic workplace culture and forced crunch, the executives allegedly pestered the development team to make XDefiant more like Call of Duty.
The announcement of the nixed March release suggests the game’s development is on the home stretch, however. Ubisoft indicated on Twitter that it plans to run a stress test for XDefiant’s servers then potentially announce a release date. Fans will have to wait and see when that happens, though.
