Ubisoft’s XDefiant is shutting down next year following declining player count

Ubisoft’s XDefiant made a massive entry into the FPS shooter genre back in May 2024 with million of players hopping on to try the game. Six months later, the game is officially being shut down, with servers closing on June 2025. Refunds for Ultimate Founder’s Pack users and those who spent money in the last 30 days are in progress.

The announcement came from Executive Producer on XDefiant, Mark Rubin, who informed fans about the situation, however, rumours were already floating around with Insider Gaming reporting on the matter. As of now, new downloads and player registration has been disabled, pointing that Ubisoft ins’t planning to taking back their decision.

“Starting today (December 3, 2024), new downloads and player registrations will no longer be available. We will still release our Season 3 content in the near future (exact date TBD) and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025,” Rubin wrote.

Dear Players,

Important message: XDEFIANT IS SUNSETTING!

Thank you for your incredible support and dedication to XDEFIANT. We regret to inform you that we are initiating the sunset process starting today, December 3, 2024.
As a result, new downloads, player registrations and… pic.twitter.com/h0kXRowL5T

— XDefiant (@PlayXDefiant) December 3, 2024

Those who already have access to the game can still play and since the Season 3 content is ready, they can enjoy while it lasts. However, this announcement does come as a shock to many as just a month earlier, Rubin stated there were no plans to shut down the game.

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XDefiant shutdown comes with chunky lay-offs

Shutting down XDefiant is also going to affect a significant amount of developers at the San Francisco studio. Around 200 people will reportedly be affected by the lay-offs, with Ubisoft shutting down two of its studios in San Francisco and Osaka.

Rubin acknowledged that free-to-play usually have a hard time to establish themselves in the current market, especially where there are so many IPs already available. The game was exclusive to Ubisoft connect, which could also be the reason for declining player count along with slow content update. As far as the servers and core gameplay go, they were pretty decent.