Ubisoft shuts down XDefiant, developer jobs left in limbo

After assuring players there were no plans to shut down XDefiant just two months ago, the game’s official Twitter account and executive producer Mark Rubin revealed that’s exactly what will happen in 2025.

The announcements came today swiftly after a report from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson indicating the same news. XDefiant is beginning the sunsetting process for the game now, according to Henderson’s report and confirmed by Rubin’s statement. Season three of the title will still launch, but starting today, “new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available.” The game’s servers will remain online until June 3, 2025, at which point they’ll go offline and nothing will remain of XDefiant apart from the memories of playing a game that was kind of like Call of Duty.

Rubin thanked players in his statement and praised the “open, honest communication between developers and players” that he claimed was a hallmark of XDefiant‘s run.

Of course, what happens next for the developers at Ubisoft is still up in the air—but it seems sadly predictable, and Henderson’s report indicates some staff have already been let go from the Ubisoft San Francisco studio, while also claiming more layoffs will come in the new year and the development studio as a whole will close down in February 2025.

It’s a cold, yet unsurprising end to what’s been a fractured tenure for the game. Despite all the hype it gained in its early days from betas and working with several former CoD pros and players, many thought XDefiant took too far long to actually release in full. A previous report from Henderson indicated the delays in releasing the title stemmed from many internal development problems, including a toxic work environment and issues with leadership.

Ultimate, what killed XDefiant was the lack of players actually playing the game. Ironically, this wasn’t helped by the release of Black Ops 6, the new CoD title that the “CoD killer” couldn’t match. But in reality XDefiant‘s player count woes were clear as far back as the summer, only a couple months after the game’s release.

Now, the game’s going away for good. And with it, a whole lot of developers are most likely losing their jobs in what’s already been a historically bleak year for the games industry.