Ubisoft Is Discontinuing XDefiant, Shutting Down San Francisco and Osaka Studios

gadgets.ndtv.com:

Ubisoft is discontinuing development on its free-to-play shooter XDefiant, the studio announced Wednesday. The online title, which released in May after several delays and playtests, has not been able to retain strong player numbers after a promising launch, the publisher said. As a result, Ubisoft is also shutting down its San Francisco and Osaka studios and ramping down its Sydney production site, with 277 jobs set to be impacted. XDefiant servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, the company said.

New downloads, player registrations and purchases for XDefiant have been halted, Ubisoft confirmed. Season 3 content, however, will launch as planned, before the game sunsets in June next year.

“Despite an encouraging start, the team's passionate work, and a committed fan base, we've not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market,” Ubisoft said in an announcement post that it shared internally with its teams, as well.

“As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.

“Concretely, that means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still launch, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, out of appreciation for both our dev teams who worked on it and for XDefiant's active players,” the publisher said.

XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin also announced the game's shutdown in a post on X, promising full refunds to players who purchased the Ultimate Founder's Pack. "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," Rubin said.

Hello XDefiant Fans,

I am unfortunately here today to announce that