XDefiant, Ubisoft's free-to-play multiplayer shooter, is delayed due to management's desire to make the game as similar to Call of Duty as possible. This was reported by Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming.
According to one of the sources, Ubisoft planned to release the game at the end of February, but the game was not finished by that time.
During the financial report for the third quarter of 2024, the company said that the release is planned for the end of the fourth quarter. However, this would mean that the game should be released by the end of this week, which will not happen either.
In the past few years of development, the game has missed many internal goals, including release dates, and the developers are becoming increasingly irritated with the fact that there is almost no progress now and with the decisions of the management.
Anonymous sources say that Ubisoft's management wants XDefiant to be as similar to Call of Duty as possible. Because of this, the developers are disappointed with the lack of opportunities for the team to be creative, as well as the technical difficulties that arise from such plans.
Despite the difficulties in development, Insider Gaming reports that the game is safe, there are no plans to cancel it, and development continues at the usual pace. Over the weekend, the game was also tested to check the code of the network, online store, social media tabs, etc. Now Ubisoft plans to hold another large open public test session as soon as possible.
Mark Rubin, the game's executive producer, commented on the situation and said that the studio would share new details about the game in the near future. He also said that before one of the possible releases, the developers found serious technical problems that they are currently working on solving.
We have an update coming soon. (probably this coming week) I know we've been silent because to be honest there isn't much to talk about. I know people just want to see the game ship and so do we.
— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) March 23, 2024
Despite this, neither Mark Rubin nor insiders are ready to talk about a potential release date for XDefiant. Although Rubin says that the team is currently doing everything possible to release the game as soon as possible.