Ubisoft’s XDefiant will barely celebrate its first birthday before being shut down. The company has confirmed it has begun the sunset process for the shooter starting today, which means new downloads, player registrations, and purchases are no longer available. The team still plans to launch Season 3, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, at which point the game will no longer be playable. No additional content will be added to XDefiant following the launch of Season 3.
Players who purchased the Ultimate Founders Pack will receive a full refund, along with players who made VC and DLC purchases since November 3, 2024. Unfortunately, those who purchased the Founder’s Pack and Founder’s Pack Elite are not eligible for refunds. Ubisoft stated that processing the refunds could take up to eight weeks.
Executive Producer Mark Rubin released a personal message to the community regarding the game’s shutdown, noting that many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. Rubin stated that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make that long journey until very recently. You can read his full statement below.
Defiant’s demise is yet another casualty in what has been a tumultuous year for the gaming industry. The industry has experienced a record number of layoffs and numerous studio closures. Other games, like PlayStation’s Concord, barely launched before having the plug pulled.
Hello XDefiant Fans,
I am unfortunately here today to announce that XDefiant will be shutting down.
Starting today (December 3, 2024), new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available. We will still release our Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025.
For those who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack, you’ll receive a full refund. Players who made any purchases within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded. Those refunds should happen automatically within 8 weeks of today and you can find more details on our official website, XDefiant.com.
A few years ago, Ubisoft and the SF Dev team embarked on a bold adventure to develop a new arcade shooter called XDefiant. It was from the start, an incredible challenge. Not only were we trying to shake up the genre by removing Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) while bringing back a more “old-school” arcade shooter experience, but we were also diving into the high-risk, high-reward realm of free-to-play. And for that I want to applaud not only the Dev team but also Ubisoft leadership for taking that chance!
Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue.
I am, of course, heartbroken to have to be writing this post. Yes, this game has been a personal passion for me for years and yes, I know that not all challenges lead to victory, but I also want to recognize all of the developers who are being affected by this closure. Each and every one of them is a real person with a real life separate from our own and they have all put so much of their own passion into making this game. And I hope that they can be proud of what they did achieve. I know that I will always be proud and grateful to have worked with such a great team! A team that really punched above its weight class.
And what they achieved is truly remarkable. The early response from players when XDefiant launched was amazing—we broke internal records for the fastest game to surpass 5 million users and in the end we had over 15 million players play our game! That is something to be extremely proud of, especially considering how tough this genre is. So, thank you to all of the developers who put their passion into making this game!
If there’s one thing, I hope we can all take away from this experience, it’s the importance of open, honest communication between developers and players. This “player-first” mentality along with respectful, non-toxic conversations between developers and players has been one of the standout differences that made XDefiant so special. From my very first post about XDefiant, this was the vision I wanted to champion, and I hope it leaves a positive mark on how the game industry treats its players and communities.
To our players, THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart, I want to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible community that has grown around XDefiant. Your passion, creativity, and dedication have inspired us every step of the way.
With the utmost of love and respect,
Mark Rubin, Executive Producer, XDefiant
