XDefiant Dev Says ‘We Have Done Very Little Marketing So Yes Our Numbers Are Down,’ Denies Support Could End After Season 4 if Player Count Doesn’t Improve

ign.com:

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play Call of duty rival, has missed the publisher’s expectations since launching in May — that much CEO Yves Guillemot admitted during a recent financial call. But are there plans to shut the game down? Not so, its chief developer has insisted.

Rumors began circulating this week that support for XDefiant could come to an end after Season 4, which closes out XDefiant's Year 1 roadmap, if its player count failed to improve. Ubisoft has yet to announce player numbers or revenue figures for XDefiant, with Guillemot promising to say more at the end of October.

Now, XDefiant executive producer Mark Rubin, who works at Ubisoft’s San Francisco development studio, has responded to those rumors, insisting the company does not plan to shut the game down after Season 4.

However, in-line with Guillemot’s comments, Rubin — who was an executive producer on Call of Duty before making the switch to Ubisoft — admitted player numbers are down. This, Rubin said, was because Ubisoft has done “very little marketing” as it works to improve the game. Once XDefiant is in “a better place”, the marketing push will begin, Rubin said.

“To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after Season 4,” Rubin tweeted. “I've literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4.

“We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”

XDefiant launched into the brutal live service shooter market at a time when it had already claimed a number of high-profile victims. Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopped to the tune of $200 million after Starbreeze's Payday 3 suffered a disastrous launch last year.