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Ubisoft shut down multiplayer shooter XDefiant and lay off hundreds who worked on itGames as a service “remains a pillar of our strategy”
Games as a service “remains a pillar of our strategy”
Ubisoft have discontinued their PvP shooterXDefiantand laid off roughly 277 employees at the studios who worked on the multiplayer game. “[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,” said Ubisoft executive Marie-Sophie de Waubert in a statement to workers that was later postedon Ubisoft’s website. Over half the team who worked on the game will lose their jobs at Ubi studios in San Francisco, Osaka, and Sydney. The remaining workers are “transitioning to other roles within Ubisoft.”
The multiplayer servers will stay up until June, said de Waubert, and the latest season will still be added to the game. But you won’t be able to download the game and register to play, nor buy anything in-game if you currently have the shooter installed. Anything players have bought in the last 30 days will also be refunded.
“[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,” says de Waubert in the post, using the soft verb “departing” to refer to her company’s axing of roles, as if these people are simply stepping on a plane of their own volition. I’ll add it tothe list.
Despite increasingly clear signs that the games-as-a-service business model is risky (and for some of usdeeply tiring), the Ubichief claims the company’s focus on that won’t change. She cites past support for games that struggled before becoming sustainable, such as tactical shooterRainbow Six Siegeand 3v3 ahistorical brawlerFor Honor.
“Developing Games-as-a-Service experiences remains a pillar of our strategy,” says de Waubert. “It’s a highly competitive market, and we will apply the lessons learned with XDefiant to our future live titles.”
That has not proven to be the case. Ubisoft’s support of the game - and its workers - lasted just over six months. Rubin’s rebuttal of those early reports of discontent has since been scrubbed from Ubisoft’s website, replaced with yesterday’s closure news. But you can get the gist fromthis Kotaku reportor see the update usingthe Wayback machine.
“Ubisoft’s arena shooter XDefiant needs to do more to stand out from the crowd,” said our Ollie after playing a preview build andwalking away unconvinced. It’s not impossible to imagine improvements and redesigns might have seen the shooter eventually prosper. As Ubisoft themselves remind us, they have done it before with Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor. But it appears Ubisoft management no longer hope for such turnarounds. The result is clear: nearly 300 people now have to find new jobs.
