Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter XDefiant looked quite promising when it arrived earlier this year in May, but it's entered into an overcrowded market dominated by heavy-hitters like Call of Duty.
Even since then, there have been claims about the game dropping off completely, and now the title's executive producer Mark Rubin has officially stated there are "no plans" to shut down after the fourth season of the game.
Apparently the team is already focused on its "Year 2 plans" and the idea is to get the game in a "better place" before spending big on marketing to attract new fans and bring back players who may have left. Here's the message in full:
"To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after season 4. I've literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4. We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left."
This follows a blog post in September reassuring players the game was "absolutely not dying". Here's part of it:
"Alright, with that out of the way I just want to quickly address the status of the game. i.e. is the game dying? No, the game is absolutely not dying. We know there are things we need to improve like Netcode/Hitreg and adding more content to progression, but the game is doing well. We just want it to do better...Ubisoft is very much behind us and has allocated more resources to the team in order for us to do that."
This latest update on the future of XDefiant follows a report earlier this month about Ubisoft considering a buyout after the release of Star Wars Outlaws and the sudden delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows. If you do want to give this team-based shooter a go, it's a free download on Xbox and other platforms like PlayStation and PC.
Have you tried out this free-to-play shooter yet? Let us know in the comments.
[source x.com]
Comments 13
I guess all we can do is wait and see who's right.
XDefiant might survive until Ubisoft itself dies at this point, which isn't very far away.
I found the gameplay of Xdefiant just too fast for my taste. It makes CoD feel slow when you go back to it.
@JoyfulFire even black ops 6?!
I can see Defiant becoming home to some of the CoD faithful who despise the new movement system in BlOps 6 when it reaches Warzone.
Obviously, much like the MMO Era, they'll eventually drift back to CoD.
There was no in game cross play option thanks to a request from XBOX..........really great decision and another dead XBOX game. Stop forcing this on to players of FPS is it any wonder more people are choosing PS? Pity this could of been decent but just another decision to force players into something that's not wanted or at least we want an in game option.
@LonR You can turn off crossplay if you don’t want it. I turned it off during late pre-season when every game was filled to the brim with hackers. I’ve been playing with crossplay enabled again since season 1 started and I rarely have any problems with it.
I mean, they would say that wouldn't they! After all, nothing kills off a game quicker than noting that you have few players. So, even if it's true the game is dying, you can expect the Developers to keep backing it until the very last moment. It only takes one genius update to turn around the fortunes of a game, and you just never know when that might happen. Probably won't, but you never know...
@JoakimZ The ability to turn cross play off is not in game its via the XBOX console settings this was requested via XBOX. As I said XBOX will never learn with its we all play together rubbish on FPS games. Not sure about others but I didn't buy an XBOX to play against PC players with the only option not to being in the console settings.
Maybe they should it's not good!
@LonR I don’t understand why it would be such a big deal to do it in the consoles settings vs. the in game settings, it takes like 30 seconds anyway? It just feels very nitpicky to me.
@nomither6 maybe that game is faster, I'm still on MW3
@JoakimZ If its not a big deal why not leave it in the game menu as it is in the PS version? Not a big deal why did XBOX request it not be in the game menu? It has a considerable difference when its an option in game as who wants to change a console setting that has an impact on every other game played on the same system? IMO if this had of been left in the game options there would be more current XBOX players but people are now wise to how XBOX handle this and have made other choices for their FPS experience.
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