Announced back in July of 2021, Ubisoft’s XDefiant seemed like another vanilla hero shooter that was destined to be yet another Overwatch clone though one with Call of Duty’s gunplay. Lo and behold, after trying it out ourselves, we were pleasantly surprised that the free-to-play shooter seemed to be more than just another copycat and was surprisingly fun.
Fast forward to June of 2023 after its initial public beta has come and gone, and was considered a massive success; we were expecting the game to be released within the year, which was what Ubisoft also promised at the time. Yet here we are, over five months of delay has passed, and we’re still left in the dark as to what’s happening to the shooter. Will it be released this month? This quarter? End of 2024? We’re not really sure, as the studio has seemingly stopped talking about it with not even a release window tied to it.
During the time XDefiant’s beta concluded and up to today (March 9, 2024), we’ve seen a new Call of Duty game (Modern Warfare 3) be released, and have two season’s worth of content already out, and even a surprise PvE (Player vs. Enemy) game come out of nowhere to take the gaming world by storm in Helldivers 2, and yet, even with all that, we still don’t know what the heck is happening with the game.
Case in point: the last update from the dev team was in January 27, 2024, where it was revealed that the game’s development is going well, and that’s it. Since then, we’ve gone more than a month of radio silence.
What’s even stranger here is: the game was essentially feature-complete when we played during its beta phase. Expect for a few bugs, the gunplay, progression, maps and other stuff all seemed primed for release. Sure, we get it, XDefiant didn’t want to go up against the giant that is Call of Duty. I mean, who would, right? But months have passed since Modern Warfare 3’s release, and Ubisoft has yet to comment on when we’ll actually be able to play their new shooter.
If you check the game’s subreddit, the hype build up that stemmed from the most recent beta has all but dissipated. Heck, being honest here: outside of MP1st, there’s hardly any gaming sites still covering it now. I gather, most will be waiting for something tangible before they write up anything about it.
What seemingly felt like the start of something good, with the studio and it’s heads proactively engaging with the community, and keeping them in the loop on as much as possible, has suddenly halted in the last few months.
Understandable, if you don’t have something to talk about why talk about anything? But still, for a game that seemed already to be released any moment, the handling of the delays and post communication is a stark difference then what it was prior.
In some ways it felt like a massive marketing push that, at least from the players, seemed poised to be setting the game up for quite the success. Then one delay after another, and here we are: questions on what’s happening and when it’s set to be released are the norm instead of talking about the game itself.
It just feels like a wasted opportunity given the hype and good reception the beta received hasn’t been capitalized by Ubisoft. We’re not saying to release the game broken or anything, but let’s be honest here: we aren’t expecting a bug-free experience out of the gate. Chances are, we’ll be getting a constant stream of title updates, which is par for the course for online multiplayer games.
Will XDefiant be able to rope back the people it managed to snag during the beta? Will it be able to garner the same amount of positive hype when they finally announce its release date? For first-person shooter fans’ sake, let’s hope so.
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