Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter XDefiant gets Open Session test this month

eurogamer.net:

XDefiant, Ubisoft's upcoming Tom-Clancy-inspired free-to-play shooter, is holding its first Open Session test later this month on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

XDefiant — a 6v6 mash-up of Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and The Division — was initially announced as Tom Clancy's XDefiant back in 2021, but Ubisoft chose to drop the Tom Clancy branding after criticism from fans that felt its flamboyant action strayed too far from the franchise's more serious military themes and formula.

Development has quietly continued since then, with Ubisoft occasionally opening XDefiant up to registered «insiders» to canvas feedback, and a recent closed beta finally brought the game into the hands of a much broader audience, with over 1m players ultimately getting to spend some time with its first-person shooting action.

Ubisoft is now looking to go one bigger ahead of XDefiant's full release this «summer», with a so-called Open Session test that'll run from 21st-23rd June. It'll be available to players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, and will give participants the chance to put the game's new netcode and controller tuning through their paces, as well as stress test its servers.

Former closed beta testers will be able to join the Open Session a day early on 20th June, and players wanting to take part will need to register over on Ubisoft's website.

Then, come summer, XDefiant gets its full launch starting with a six-week «pre-season» featuring its initial content line-up: 14 maps, five factions, and 24 weapons. After those six weeks are up, Ubisoft will move onto XDefiant's Year One release schedule — as per its new roadmap — slowly introducing four new «meta changing» characters, plus 12 new weapons, and 12 new maps, all inspired