XDefiant Shutting Down With Servers Going Offline In June 2025

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Key Takeaways

  • Ubisoft’s XDefiant will shut down in June 2025, with new downloads stopped from December 3, 2024.
  • Players who bought the Ultimate Founder’s Pack or made purchases within the last 30 days will receive full refunds.
  • Despite breaking records, XDefiant struggled with features, bugs, and competition, leading to its early end.

As a die-hard gamer who has been through countless launches and closures of online games, I can’t help but feel a pang of nostalgia as I bid farewell to XDefiant. The game was a breath of fresh air with its innovative take on the free-to-play shooter genre, and it managed to gather an impressive player base in a short span of time.

In May of this year, Ubisoft’s free-to-play shooter game XDefiant had a successful debut. However, it has been announced that the game will cease operation and its servers will be turned off in June 2025.

Mark Rubin from Ubisoft San Francisco disclosed this news on Twitter, expressing his difficulty in maneuvering the choppy waters of free-to-play gaming, along with a poignant message.

XDefiant New Downloads No Longer Possible As Shooter Is Shutting Down

In relation to the XDefiant closure announcement, Rubin additionally disclosed that players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack and those who made any purchases within the past month will receive a complete refund. Fortunately, no action is required on the part of the players, as the refunds will be processed automatically and are expected to be completed within eight weeks from today.

Rubin also noted the challenges of navigating the free-to-play market, expressing it as, “Free-to-play markets can be a lengthy trek. Often, free-to-play games require considerable time to establish a solid foundation and become financially viable. Ubisoft and the development teams had been ready to embark on this prolonged journey until quite recently. However, the path became too arduous to sustainably continue.

Despite uncertainty about the current number of active players, it’s been revealed that XDefiant set internal benchmarks by achieving five million users faster than any other game before it. Eventually, a total of more than 15 million gamers engaged with the game, an impressive accomplishment indeed.

As a dedicated fan, I received the unfortunate news that the game’s closure is imminent, following reports in August suggesting its player base was dwindling across all platforms. Initially, it was mentioned that Ubisoft would shutter the game post Season 4 if things didn’t improve; however, it appears we won’t even reach that point, as Season 3 is now confirmed to be the final chapter for this cherished game.

Having been an avid player during its early stages, I had high expectations for additional features and bug fixes to appear over time. Regrettably, those improvements never materialized, and the arrival of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 only compounded the issue since both games cater to a similar audience. Ubisoft possessed something unique with XDefiant; however, it lacked a comprehensive progression system after initial unlocks, was missing features commonly found in modern multiplayer games, and bore a significant number of bugs that frustrated players.

Indeed, it wouldn’t be fair to measure XDefiant against a high-budget game like Call of Duty, considering the size of the XDefiant development team was much smaller. However, it’s likely that the majority of players were unaware of this fact and probably wouldn’t have cared about it either way.

It’s hoped that Ubisoft will take this experience into account when developing their future free-to-play games. Interestingly, there are reports suggesting that Ubisoft might be discussing a possible acquisition by the Chinese technology powerhouse, Tencent.

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2024-12-04 07:11