Het is een behoorlijk moeilijk jaar voor Ubisoft die klap op klap krijgt, Assassin's Creed is verschoven door ophef, Star Wars: Outlaws kreeg (onterecht) een shitload aan kritiek over zich heen, uitspraken over dat je games niet je eigendom zijn en had XDefiant de strijd aan moeten gaan op de erg krappe free to play FPS (First Person Shooter) markt.

In XDefiance speelde je met allemaal fracties uit de bekende Tom Clancy en Ubisofts video games die al sinds jaar en dag door Ubisoft worden uitgegeven. Denk hier bij aan Splinter Cell, The Divison en Far Cry. Ik zelf heb het de eerste weken intensief dagelijks gespeeld (moet nog 1 Achievement voor een complete) en het had de old skool feeling van de eerste Call of Duty titels.

Helaas is nu bekend geworden dat deze game geen succes is en dan op 3 juni 2025 de stekker uit de servers gaat en het game over is voor iets wat in mijn mening een hoop potentie had, maar kansloos was voor de huidige markt.

Today, I wanted to share with you that we've made the difficult decision to discontinue development on XDefiant.

Despite an encouraging start, the team's passionate work, and a committed fan base, we've not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market. As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.

Concretely, that means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still launch, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, out of appreciation for both our dev teams who worked on it and for XDefiant's active players.

Unfortunately, the discontinuation of XDefiant brings difficult consequences for the teams working on this game. Even if almost half of the XDefiant team worldwide will be transitioning to other roles within Ubisoft, this decision also leads to the closing of our San Francisco and Osaka production studios and to the ramp down of our Sydney production site, with 143 people departing in San Francisco and 134 people likely to depart in Osaka and Sydney. To those team members leaving Ubisoft, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your work and contributions. Please know that we are committed to supporting you during this transition.

Developing Games-as-a-Service experiences remains a pillar of our strategy, and we've achieved significant successes, like Rainbow Six, The Crew, and For Honor, among others. It's a highly competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles.

Globally, we are determined to take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth, innovation and creativity and make sure we can set you up for success. This means continuing to radically evolve our mindset for Production and Business practices, which we will share more about soon, and doing targeted restructuring when necessary. I know that the situation brings questions and expectations, and we will share regular and transparent updates.

My sincere thanks for your continued dedication as we navigate these trying times together.

Marie-Sophie de Waubert, Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer