Ubisoft’s XDefiant has had an interesting story since its launch earlier this year. While it kicked off in a big way, it seems to have struggled to maintain that momentum.
As a result, the rumour mill and its attendants have been working overtime, with multiple claims that the game is “dying” and that Ubisoft is ready to pull the plug should the numbers not improve.
Today, more rumours swirled from Shaun Weber, saying that if player numbers didn’t increase by the end of XDefiant’s Season 4, the plug would be pulled. Executive producer on XDefiant, Mark Rubin had a clear response to the rumours by rejecting them entirely.
“To be crystal clear there are NO plans to shut down after season 4,” he began in a statement on Twitter. “I’ve literally been in meetings as of last week to discuss our Year 2 plans. But, right now we are super focused on improving the technical experience (which includes netcode) and adding more content for Seasons 3 & 4.”
“We have done very little marketing so yes our numbers are down but that is just to give the team the time to get the game in a better place before we do bigger spends on marketing to bring new players to the game and to bring back players that have left.”
Just last month, Ubisoft addressed rumours about XDefiant being on the chopping block. And less than a month from that first denial, it’s quelling those rumours once again.
Players have become accustomed to live service games burning out quickly, whether they were popular in the first place or not. It’s always a big story whenever one does, like Concord’s spectacular blow-up. It would be a big story if XDefiant blew up as well, and there would be a few rumour mill attendants who would love to have an “I told you so” moment.
Source – [Mark Rubin on Twitter, VideoGamer]