XDefiant Struggling to Nail Down Launch Date as Ubisoft Execs Attempt to Copy Call of Duty – Rumour

gamingbolt.com:

From Skull and Bones to Beyond Good and Evil 2 and many others, Ubisoft has been no stranger to games being stuck in limbo in recent years, and it seems another one of its in-development projects is currently facing similar struggles. Multiplayer shooter XDefiant has faced numerous delays in recent months, and though Ubisoft said earlier this year that the game would launch before April, with March now nearly over, that’s look incredibly unlikely.

According to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson, that’s owing to development troubles that have emerged due to Ubisoft executives attempting to turn XDefiant into a “Call of Duty copy”. Henderson has claimed in a report that members of the shooter’s development team are growing “increasingly frustrated” with the game consistently missing targets, with the higher-ups’ insistence on making the game more similar to Call of Duty supposedly being the primary reason for the game’s delays.

One anonymous source has allegedly said the delays are down to “the never-ending hunt to chase CoD and add pointless stuff”, which “always breaks the current build.”

Development on the title is continuing, with a major playtest session also having been held recently, and another Open Session being planned “as soon as possible”. However, as per Henderson, the game is still “a good few months from release”, with Ubisoft itself seemingly being unsure of when to launch it.

Interestingly, responding to the report on Twitter, executive producer Mark Rubin claimed that XDefiant’s delays were unrelated to new features, and described allegations of the game attempting to imitate Call of Duty as “a major eyeroll”.

In his report, however, Henderson wrote, “I would be a little more wary in the future of the whole ‘open transparency’ thing — as it usually has bigger implications and doesn’t reflect what’s truly going on.” Responding to Rubin’s tweet, he called attention to the same.