Ubisoft has confirmed that it will stop supporting its first-person shooter game XDefiant, closing its studios in San Francisco and Osaka, Japan, and downsizing in Sydney, Australia.
After months of denying that the shooter was in trouble, Ubisoft announced on Tuesday that it had made “the difficult decision to discontinue development” of XDefiant.
“Despite an encouraging start, passionate teamwork and a committed fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain enough long-term players to compete at the level we seek in the demanding free-to-play game. SPF market,” wrote the director of studies, Marie-Sophie de Waubert.
“As a result, the game is very far from achieving the results necessary to allow for significant further investment, and we are announcing that we will be canceling it.”
Starting today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available for XDefiant, Waubert said. Season 3 of the game will still be released, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025.
Nearly half of XDefiant’s team worldwide will move to other roles within Ubisoft, the executive said, but its San Francisco and Osaka production studios will close, and its Sydney production site will shrink, with 143 people leaving. San Francisco and 134 people “probably.” leave” in Osaka and Sydney.
XDefiant launched in May for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
The game‘s first season of live content launched in July and the second arrived in September, when plans for two more seasons of content were outlined.
On the same day that XDefiant’s second season launched, Ubisoft announced it was delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows until next year and said it had initiated a plan to improve the fortunes of Star Wars Outlaws after a disappointing launch.
The French publisher has lost more than half its market value this year, and it was recently claimed that its founders are considering taking the company private with Tencent, which already owns around 10% of the company.
Tuesday’s statement continued: “Developing gaming experiences as a service remains a pillar of our strategy and we have achieved significant successes such as Rainbow Six, The Crew and For Honor, among others. It is a highly competitive market and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles.
“Globally, we are determined to take the necessary steps to get the company back on track for growth, innovation and creativity and ensure we can set it up for success. This means continuing to radically evolve our mindset for production and business practices, which we will share more about soon, and undertaking targeted restructuring where necessary.
“I know the situation raises questions and expectations, and we will share regular and transparent updates.”
