Call of Duty may have a rival in XDefiant, as FPS game beta hits big

pcgamesn.com:

It’s been a difficult journey for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and its accompanying battle royale shooter Warzone 2. While the now renamed Warzone Caldera set the benchmark for competitive FPS games, changes to MW2 relating to time-to-kill (TTK), movement, UI, and loadouts have drawn increasing criticism. Now, XDefiant, the new Ubisoft FPS game which combines characters from Rainbow Six, The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell, is claiming a big Twitch viewership amid talk of an extended beta, with many of its mechanics seemingly designed to win over disillusioned CoD fans.

As of this writing, according to statistics site Twitch Tracker, the average Twitch viewership for XDefiant, during its closed beta, stands at precisely 32,507 over the last seven days. Compare that to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (which includes Warzone 2) at 28,025, or even the beloved Warzone 1, 30,773, and there’s some encouraging signs of initial popularity.

The XDefiant closed beta runs from April 13 to April 23, though there is the possibility that it may continue for longer. Ubisoft executive producer Mark Rubin (who, funnily enough, previously served in the same role on the Call of Duty series), says that, owing to a few technical issues and delays, the developer may extend the XDefiant beta in order to compensate.

“If all goes well and the servers finally gain some stability then I think we should look at extending the beta,” Rubin says. “But I have to see what that would mean for the team.”

So, what is it that XDefiant offers, and how does this potentially solve some of the issues from the latest CoD? Primarily, XDefiant seems to provide a more balanced and equitable range of weapons – every gun has strengths and weaknesses, and