XDefiant will close a year after launch, and the development studio will be disbanded – Ubisoft’s patience has run out

Contrary to the September statements of the developers, the shareware team shooter XDefiant from Ubisoft San Francisco is still dying. Ubisoft has officially announced the shutdown date for the game.

Image source: Ubisoft

As it became known, XDefiant servers will be turned off on June 3, 2025. Until then, registered users will be able to continue playing, but new registrations and micropayments will no longer be possible. The third season will proceed as planned.

Buyers of the most complete edition of XDefiant (Ultimate Founder’s Pack) are promised a refund. Ubisoft will also refund everyone who made in-game purchases in the last 30 days.

As a result, Ubisoft studios in San Francisco and Osaka will also be dissolved, and the Sydney office will lose part of its team – more than 270 people will be laid off. About half of the XDefiant team will be transferred to other projects within the company.

Said refunds will be processed automatically within eight weeks

According to Ubisoft head of studios and portfolio Marie-Sophie de Waubert, XDefiant showed an encouraging start, but was unable to retain enough players in the long term to justify further investment.

Despite the failure with XDefiant, gaming services will remain “a fundamental element” of Ubisoft’s strategy. The company intends to apply the lessons learned from the project to future developments.

XDefiant launched on May 21 of this year on PC (Ubisoft Connect), PS5, Xbox Series X and S. At launch, the shooter attracted 8 million players, and the final audience of the project amounted to more than 15 million people.