As a long-time fan of Ubisoft games, I must say, it’s been quite a challenging year for them. The underperformance of XDefiant, their PvP shooter, is disheartening to see, especially after such high hopes when it was first announced.
This year, it seems like Ubisoft continues to face difficulties with their game development, as they’ve acknowledged that their multiplayer shooter, XDefiant, isn’t performing up to expectations, not even by the modest standards they had previously established for this free-to-play game.
During a recent investor conference, Ubisoft’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, discussed the ongoing situation with XDefiant, a game that appears to have quietly disappeared from view following its release on May 21st, without generating much buzz or attention.
Expressing that the game’s current performance is “not meeting expectations” might give an overly negative impression, especially when the initial benchmark for success was already quite low. No specific figures were disclosed regarding the revenue the free-to-play shooter has earned, but based on the player count, the situation appears to be challenging.
Based on a report by Tom Henderson in late August, it appears that XDefiant is finding difficulty achieving 20,000 simultaneous players. One significant factor contributing to this struggle is Ubisoft’s decision to keep their shooter exclusive to the Ubi launcher, which potentially excludes a large number of potential players who prefer using Steam as their launch platform.
In simple terms, the challenges faced by XDefiant are compounding the troubles Ubisoft has been experiencing lately. Unfortunately, their highly anticipated AAA open-world Star Wars game, Outlaws, is falling short in both commercial success and critical acclaim.
Upon release, the game Outlaws came with significant glitches, one of which corrupted the save files for players who advanced through the game during its early access phase. Consequently, Ubisoft decided to postpone Assassin’s Creed Shadows and forfeit the early access benefits in the process.
According to a report by Games Industry, Ubisoft anticipates earning approximately €500 million, with Outlaws and AC Shadows being key contributors due to their expected strong performance. Notably, this optimism stems from Ubisoft surpassing their expectations during the first quarter of the current fiscal year (April-June), a boost partly attributed to XDefiant’s remarkable success in its initial market release.
Regrettably, it appears the shooter has struggled significantly with keeping players engaged, which might make it challenging for the game to stand out in this highly competitive gaming industry.
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2024-10-01 10:42