Realistically, this news doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Considering the huge amount of hot water Ubisoft is in right now, with the troubles only seeming to continue in quantity and significance, it’s not too much of a surprise that XDefiant is officially closing down. Several sources have revealed this information to Insider Gaming, which is where it was first reported. The news came in an internal all-hands meeting that took place today. Ubisoft has decided to shut down the game because of poor player numbers and a lack of player spending. This is something that Ubisoft has commented on multiple times themselves, especially in their financial reports. Times for Ubisoft have been particularly difficult as of late, as Star Wars Outlaws didn’t launch the way they were hoping and didn’t bring in as much revenue as they lied. In addition to that, they now have XDefiant as a sinking ship, with a lot of people being very uncertain about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was delayed to next year.
Due to XDefiant closing down, it’s said that there will be a significant number of employees laid off from the San Francisco studio as well as supporting studios, with some of the staff already receiving their severance information. Ubisoft is set to experience another wave of layoffs in February, as the San Francisco studio will be closing its doors completely. It’s not said whether the staff working there will be relocated to work elsewhere within the company or if they’ve been let go completely.
Season 3 of XDefiant will be the last full season of the game, with a skeleton crew continuing to work on the game until June 2025, which is when the game will be sunsetted.
Mark Rubin, Executive Producer on XDefiant made a lengthy statement on X today, announcing that the servers for the game will remain active until June 3, 2025. Any players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack will be refunded. Additionally, any players who made any sort of purchase in the game within the last 30 days will also be fully refunded and this will happen automatically within 8 weeks.
As of today, new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available, and the game will only be available to those who were previously playing it and had registered or downloaded the game prior. All information about the closure is listed on the official XDefiant website.
