After multiple delays, a promising start, and a rapid decline into irrelevancy, the story of XDefiant is almost at an end.
As we said in our original review, XDefiant was a really solid game.
While there was room for improvement, it was in no way a bad game; that being said, we did have some issues with it, such as its lack of skill-based matchmaking, which, more than anything, contributed to its demise.
While the lack of SBMM was a near-fatal blow, it was not the only issue that brought XDefiant to its knees, causing Ubisoft to announce its closure barely 6 months after it captured headlines for its rapid growth (over 8 million players in just a few days) and widespread player and critical acclaim.
So, with that in mind, let’s examine what issues contributed to XDefiant’s downfall and how it could have been saved.
While some titles have “got lucky,” a general rule is that any title developed to be an “X Killer” normally fairs poorly; we have seen dozens of titles attempt to be World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Call of Duty killers over the past decade, and with very few exceptions, many of these titles were either forced to close or quickly assumed an identity of their own that went beyond being an “X killer.”
While the developers of XDefiant never publicly stated they wanted to kill Call of Duty, everything about the game was designed to win over unhappy Call of Duty players. The problem is that some people are always unhappy, and despite saying they wanted a game like classic Call of Duty, few did; no, they wanted to feel the way they felt when playing classic Call of Duty.
They wanted to feel 16 again. They craved the feeling of eating Doritos and playing Call of Duty until 1 a.m. on a school night. They wanted to feel young again. While there is a place for classic games, no matter how authentic they are to the original in spirit or design, you cannot turn back time. No matter how good a game is and how much you want to feel like you are 16 again, it isn’t happening.
Instead, embrace where you are now and enjoy games, both new and old. Life is too short and precious to spend your present trying to relive the past.
Gamers in 2024 expect a steady stream of new content, and while XDefiant got off to a great start, there was very little in the pipeline to keep players engaged; if you look at the most successful games today, they are constantly evolving and improving, and unfortunately for XDefiant and its developers, XDefiant is pretty much the same game today as it was at launch, even if the developers added a few new maps and items along the way.
Ubisoft has grown sheepish about live service titles, and it shows. With multiple cancelled projects, sunset projects, and projects in limbo, it seems that the top brass at Ubisoft want to have a successful live service title but are nervous about committing fully to any one project long enough to see it past its awkward early seasons.
As a result, players have lost interest in fully committing to any live service title that Ubisoft releases and (rightfully) wonder if Ubisoft will pull the plug in a few months, wasting time and potential money.
That said, Ubisoft will refund XDefiant for almost every transaction, which I feel will go a long way towards preventing the PR nightmare closing a live service title so soon would have caused.
No one wants to spend their time being farmed by better players with better loadouts and a near photographic memory of each map; however, that is exactly what happens on games like XDefiant, which do not offer skill-based matchmaking (SBMM).
It is better for everyone, yet streamers who enjoy dominating lobbies of less skilled players have somehow managed to convince their followers that SBMM is a bad thing. They give their followers the idea that if it didn’t exist, they would be the “hunters,” when in reality, many of them would be prey for better players, often like the streamers in question.
Cross-ply and SBMM are two of the most important mechanics to ensure the longevity of any competitive title, and by forgoing the latter, Ubisoft San Francisco all but ensured that XDefiant would struggle to compete in a very competitive market.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is perhaps the best title in the franchise’s history. It’s dominating the charts on almost every platform, which likely is a large part of why Ubisoft decided to pull the plug early and stop new signups despite having season three content ready to release.
You can read what we thought of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 here.
XDefiant was not a bad game, and even now, it would not be too late for Ubisoft to reverse course and save what had the potential to be a cornerstone of the FPS genre; it was able to attract a huge launch audience, and it could have won over many of those players as well as new players if the developers had made it more casual player-friendly.
Unfortunately, a hostile gaming community and the financial realities of failure in 2024 robbed Ubisoft of the will needed to survive beyond a few dry months, which is a shame.
Ubisoft has made some truly amazing games and has a proven track record of fixing “broken games,” but gaming media is far more hostile than it was when Rainbow Siege 6 struggled during its early months.
An entire industry has sprung up around creating content to make gamers “rise in anger.”
The top brass at Ubisoft must learn what feedback to listen to and what to ignore.
So far, based on all I can see, they listen to the loudest feedback, which has resulted in far too many games being cancelled, closed, and delayed.
If I could say one thing to the Guillemot family, it would be to consider the source of feedback and opinions more carefully; just because the followers of right-wing content creators and rage-baiters feel a certain way about a Ubisoft title, it does not mean that the majority of the gaming community would not support it in time if it were given the same care and attention titles like Rainbow Siege 6 and For Honor during their times of trouble.
It’s time developers and publishers stop listening to the loudest voices, especially when those voices are simply reporting what a streamer or content creator is preaching.
Developers listened to loud voices calling for a game without skill-based matchmaking despite overwhelming evidence showing that few gamers actually enjoy games without skill-based matchmaking, despite being told they do by streamers who depend on being able to enter lobbies full of new players to show off their “skills” to their undiscerning audience.
Management listened to angry voices and gave up on too many Live service titles, causing the gaming community to lose faith in Ubisoft’s commitment to live service games,
Gamers allowed rage-baiting content creators to decide on their behalf how they feel about games and companies, even as the companies and games they have loved die in the crossfire.
Read more about this very important issue: Woe unto the false gods of gaming!
