XDefiant, a video game that planned to be the direct competitor of Call of Duty: Warzone and other popular Battle Royale, announced in recent hours that it will be, ultimately, canceled for various reasons, also closing 2 of Ubisoft’s own studios in the same move. This will leave a little more than 150 programmers without work and with an uncertain fate to those who remain working for the French company that as the months go by is involved in more scandals.
Everything behind the closure of XDEFIANT and Ubisoft’s studios
Launched last July 2, 2024 after an exciting announcement explaining its innovative mechanics and easy gameplay, XDEFIANT was the game that came to face and be direct competition of the successful “Battle Royale” Call of Duty: Warzone. But now it announced in a statement, on December 5 via X|Twitter, that it will close its servers for good in 2025, as it “has not captivated” enough fans.
The now doomed game implemented novel and interesting mechanics that kept players interested in continuing in this first-person Battleroyale with varied game modes such as invisibility. Among its game modes were the rescue of resources, defending positions or being the last one standing, besides the fact that it can be played in multiplayer or solitary mode to face different challenges.
One of the most impressive and attractive aspects of XDEFIANT is the choice between skins of iconic characters from Ubisoft sagas such as: The Division, Rainbow Six Siege, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, making this Battle Royale a nostalgic crossover for fans of the French company and all the exciting franchises that have excited all gamers to date.
Something inconceivable is undoubtedly the domino effect that triggered the closure of this new Battle Royale and that is that, with its cancellation, the French company decided to close 2 of its own studios, leaving dozens of workers unemployed and the rest to be employed for other future projects of the brand. The decision caused annoyance among fans, who have decided to protest and start a campaign not to close servers and thus not to close their studios.
The studios that the French company will close will be: Ubisoft Osaka and Ubisoft San Francisco, both subsidiaries, began work in 2008 and 2009 respectively and are collaborators. The first one was dedicated in its beginnings to create games for portable consoles such as the “Petz” saga and the second one created games for desktop consoles, among the main videogames made by both studios are:
Osaka
Petz Beach (2012)
Just Dance Kids 2014 (2013)
Gravity Falls (2015)
South Park: Retaguardia en Peligro (2017)
Rocksmith + (2022)
XDEFIANT (2024)
San Francisco
Rocksmith (2012)
Rocksmith 2014 (2013)
South Park: The Fractured but Whole (2017)
Rocksmith + (2022)
XDEFIANT (2024)
Although the game as a service, did not manage to be what the company expected, it managed to collect 15 million players, the game that recovered the essence that Warzone was losing, thanks to its producer Mark Rubin who had been present in the staff of titles like Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty: MW2, with extensive experience in this type of genre and that you can feel his creative touch in the gameplay of XDEFIANT failed to be a rival for the monster that Warzone symbolizes and only managed to survive 5 months before the announcement of the closure of its servers.
This makes it clear that games as a service are no longer an area of opportunity for those who plan to create one, even if they have innovative mechanics as was the soon to die XDEFIANT very despite its 15 million players, titles like Fortnite (Epic Games) or Call of Duty: Warzone are miles away from any title of this genre. Reliable proof of this is CONCORD (Sony) which lasted less than 2 weeks before closing servers after 5 years of development.
