It was supposed to be the big Call of Duty killer from Ubisoft. The French game publisher had big plans for the multiplayer shooter XDefiant a few months ago. Initial figures confirmed the game's success. But now the number of players seems to have dropped so drastically that Ubisoft is considering pulling the plug on the free-to-play shooter completely…
XDefiant: From great success to absolute disaster?
The free-to-play shooter XDefiant from Ubisoft, which many have already considered a Call of Duty killer, was only launched in May of this year. And shortly after the release, the French publisher also reported extremely good news: In the first few hours after the release, more than a million players are said to have tried it out, and after a week the number of players for XDefiant had already risen to over eight million.
A complete success too – you might think! Although the game was marked by success stories shortly after its release, this didn't last. According to internal reports from Ubisoft employees, the future of the multiplayer shooter is hanging by a thread. There is even talk of a complete shutdown. But how did this come to this and do we really have to worry about making XDefiant now?
How many active players does XDefiant have?
According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, XDefiant is said to be temporarily used by more than 11 million players have been actively played. But those days are probably over. Internal reports show that the shooter no longer has 20,000 players across all platforms. One employee even calls these numbers optimistic:
“She [Ubisoft] “I would be happy if these numbers were actually correct”. This of course suggests that the player numbers are even worse. There is a nervous atmosphere in the XDefiant development team because many believe that the impending failure of XDefiant could cost them their jobs.
A few weeks ago, Ubisoft cut ten jobs at XDefiant developer Ubisoft San Francisco. If the game doesn't get back on track, Ubisoft will probably consider shutting down the servers. But how much time do the developers have left to get the game back on track?
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Season 3 will be crucial for the future of XDefiant
According to InsiderGaming The next third season of XDefiant will be crucial for the future of the game. If the number of players does not improve by then, Ubisoft will probably consider discontinuing the multiplayer game altogether. The French publisher took this step with another game just at the beginning of the year.
What makes matters worse is that the release of the third season could coincide with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This could cause even more players to leave. The beta of the new CoD has already been successfully launched. Could the new Call of Duty outstrip the supposed Call of Duty killer?
