Ubisoft Denies Reports XDefiant Is Dying, Provides Updated Year One Roadmap

Ubisoft has released an updated Year One roadmap for its free-to-play shooter, XDefiant, highlighting important changes and new content coming down the road. The blog post also denies reports that XDefiant is dying, stating that the game is in a healthy state and that Ubisoft has provided additional resources to the team to fix some of the larger issues, like hit registration.

The blog post starts by addressing the issues players have been having with the hit registration in XDefiant, which doesn’t work as reliably as some other multiplayer shooters. The simplified explanation given is that currently packets are sent twice between players, but the industry standard is four times. In order to achieve this, the XDefiant team needs to reduce the size of their packets so they can send them more times. No solid release date was given, but the team hopes to make significant progress by the end of Season 2.

The blog post also denies reports that XDefiant is in trouble at Ubisoft, although it doesn’t respond directly to some of the claims. The report from Insider Gaming from late August stated that XDefiant player numbers have dropped off significantly since launch and that if Season 3 doesn’t turn things around, the game could be in danger of shutting down. The blog post states that “no, the game is absolutely not dying,” and reiterates that quality-of-life improvements are high on the priority list.

The blog post also includes an updated roadmap for XDefiant. It reiterates that each season will include three new maps, three new guns, and a new faction to play, but now it also lists progression changes and quality of life changes. Season 2 includes player collision and footstep audio improvements, in addition to event challenges and improved battle pass progression.

Executive producer on XDefiant Mark Rubin shared on Twitter that the team is still working on free-for-all and will provide an updated ETA when they can. Rubin also clarified that updates coming in later seasons are not being held, but are still being worked on, like the prestige system coming in Season 3.

Season 2 of XDefiant will be revealed on September 18, where the new faction, the Highwaymen, and weapons should be showcased. Ubisoft recently suffered layoffs, adding to the over 10,000 gaming jobs lost this year.