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XDefiant is officially shutting down on June 3rd 2025, Ubisoft has confirmed. The arcade first-person shooter was released early this year and just 6 months later the game has announced it will be shutting down.
XDefiant become one of the most popular FPS games on launch, with thousands streaming on video-streaming platform Twitch, with over 300,000 concurrent players. However, those numbers have dramatically fallen off over the last few months, with many players citing critical bugs, overpriced cosmetics and lack of content as the reason.
In a Statement on the XDefiant website, Ubisoft announced the sunsetting period from 3rd December 2024 will prevent new player registrations and the purchase of any DLC/Cosmetics. The game will then launch Season 3, before finally shutting down for good on June 3rd 2025.
If you already have an account, you can still play the game until the shut-down date, but anyone interested in trying out the free-to-play shooter will no longer be able to.
XDefiant was hyped as a rival to the dominant CoD franchise and had been in hampered development since it was announced in 2021. The game officially launched in May 2024 with a Pre-Season, allowing anyone to play for free. However, the game was criticized by fans for having extremely buggy netcode, lack of content and overpriced cosmetics.
XDefiant did make improvements to these concerns, with Season 1 and Season 2 both adding new content in the form of new maps, game modes and skins for players to unlock. However, it wasn't enough to stop Ubisoft Executives from canceling the game completely.
Mark Rubin, the XDefiant lead, posted this message on X.com:
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, http://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
Ubisoft did announce that they will be processing refunds for players who purchased X-Coins and DLC packs. You can find the full details on their website.
One of the most interesting features of XDefiant was it's lack of SBMM (Skill-Based Matchmaking), which groups players together of similar skill. With it being removed in XDefiant, lobbies were completely random, allowing for a more casual playlist. However, concerns were made about the fact that newbies to the game would get stomped in their first few matches due to being matched sometimes with high-skill players. It raises the question whether an FPS game can survive without SBMM.
This isn't the first game Ubisoft has shut down this year:
- Assassin’s Creed II (Xbox 360)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Mac)
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations (PC)
- Ghost Recon Future Soldier (PC)
- Heroes of Might and Magic VI (PC)
- NCIS (PC)
- R.U.S.E. (PC)
- Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360)
- Trials Evolution (PC)
- XDefiant (PC)
This latest shutdown will once again make players hesitant of playing an online-service game published by Ubisoft. It seems if the game doesn't bring in bucket-loads of cash or has high-player retention, the game won't last very long.
We're curious to hear your thoughts on XDefiant's Shutdown. Did you see it coming? Do you feel the game deserved more of a chance to overcome it's initial struggles? Let us know in the comments below!
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