Ubisoft’s free-to-play arcade shooter XDefiant that was first unveiled all the way back in 2021 will finally be launching later this month on May 21, 2024, for PS5 and other current-gen platforms.
It’ll arrive with 14 maps, 24 weapons which all share 44 attachments and five playable factions that each come from various Ubisoft franchises, with all of them having their own advantages and disadvantages. Being able to swap between factions and loadouts, even mid-game, is part of XDefiant’s allure of fast-paced, varied FPS gameplay.
This level of map and weapon variety isn’t anything new compared to what we previously heard about XDefiant. Back when it was originally meant to arrive in Summer 2023, Ubisoft ran an open test which included all the same stats.
Just as the summer ended however, it was announced that XDefiant would be delayed into October, due to it failing certification from both Sony and Microsoft.
Shortly after the failure Ubisoft made the decision to delay the Preseason launch again, this time without offering any kind of release window.
Even right when it was revealed, XDefiant was met with apprehension from players. FPS games are a huge piece of the gaming industry pie that’s mostly coloured in by a short list of very large games.
Your average FPS player likely has one of these big games as their ‘main grind,’ a game that they’re so entrenched in they just keep up with that, because the nature of today’s live service games means that even taking a few days off could have you feeling left behind.
With all that in mind it’s exceedingly difficult for any newcomer on the scene to really, truly pull players away from their favourites. Some have been mildly successful, for example no one could’ve foreseen how well The Finals would break into the genre and carve out its own community.
But that’s an example of the exception, not the rule, so it’ll be interesting to see how much longer Ubisoft keeps XDefiant around if it is still unable to really grab players post-launch.
That’s not to say there isn’t a community of players rallying around XDefiant, just a read on the realities of how difficult it can be to keep a live service, free-to-play game going.
Also, XDefiant was announced so long ago that it was originally meant to arrive on consoles, PC and Google Stadia, and while you might be saying 2021 isn’t really that long ago, it already feels like forever since anyone thought about Google Stadia.
There’s no guarantee that XDefiant will be able to regain any interest it might’ve had when it was first shown off almost three years ago.
Source – [Ubisoft]