Ubisoft Is Shutting Down Multiplayer Shooter XDefiant And Issuing Refunds

Another hopeful entrant into the competitive live service game space bites the dust, as Ubisoft announces that it will be shutting down first person shooter XDefiant and issuing refunds to players. The upcoming Season 3 will still launch for current players to enjoy, but this will be the last addition of content. Additionally, servers will be shut down in June of 2025. New player sign-ups, downloads, and purchases will no longer be available, either.

The game never seemed to find a big enough audience, even after a lengthy early access and beta period where it should’ve gotten plenty of player feedback. In an internal e-mail to employees, Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert said that “we’ve not been able to attract and retain enough players,” and that “the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment.”


Unsurprisingly, “discontinuation of XDefiant brings difficult consequences for the teams working on this game.” This translates to more layoffs for an already beleaguered industry that has shed thousands of jobs throughout 2024. The company’s game studios in San Francisco, Osaka, Japan and Sydney, Australia will all be shuttered and will lead to 277 people losing their jobs. Although it does seem as if Ubisoft managed to find a landing spot internally for many employees at these studios, otherwise the number would be much higher.

Even with how poorly this project went, it doesn’t seem as if Ubisoft plans to stop chasing the pot of gold at the end of the live service rainbow. The company appears ready to continue to try and crack this nut as “developing Games-as-a-Service experiences remains a pillar of our strategy,” and “will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles.” Time will tell if Ubisoft can pull it off.