Contrary to Ubisoft’s comments in recent months, XDefiant’s server closure has been announced, and the free Xbox game has already been delisted from the Xbox store. Existing players will have until June 2025 to unlock their remaining XDefiant achievements before they’re all discontinued.XDefiant delisted from stores ahead of server closure in 2025Server shutdown date: June 3, 2025Number of affected achievements: All 13 XDefiant achievementsAvailability: Delisted from the Xbox storeUbisoft has announced that its free-to-play shooter XDefiant will be shut down on June 3, 2025. The game has also been delisted from the Xbox store, and “new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available.” Ubisoft says that Season 3 will still roll out as planned, however.The shutdown will also see Ubisoft close its studios in Sydney and Osaka, leading to 143 layoffs in Sydney and “likely” 134 layoffs in Osaka. Apparently, “almost half” of the XDefiant team around the world will be moved to other projects within the company, however.”Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work, and a committed fan base, 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,” Ubisoft chief studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert said. “As a result, the game is too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will be sunsetting it.”Concretely, that means that as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available. Season 3 will still launch, and the servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, out of appreciation for both our dev teams who worked on it and for XDefiant’s active players.”Current players will have until June 3, 2025, to finish off the XDefiant achievements before they’re all discontinued. While most of them will unlock naturally while playing, there are two grindy achievements linked to reaching player level 50 and level 50 with a weapon — the former challenge being the biggest time-sink of them all, so you might want to get this done sooner rather than later. As reported by Insider Gaming, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemet addressed the shutdown and Ubisoft’s generally rocky position in an internal memo. “I am well aware that, given the current context, such announcements may worry you, and that’s understandable,” Guillemet said. “The entire industry is facing similar difficult decisions, yet often the scale of the impact is much larger. Our organization has allowed us to limit the impact of these kinds of decisions and make more targeted restructurings, and all our efforts are focused on trying to maintain this course and philosophy. We will continue working on evolving our organization to adapt it to market changes, and with a long-term perspective in mind.”This news follows just one month after XDefiant’s executive producer made it “crystal clear” that Ubisoft didn’t have any plans to shut down the free-to-play shooter, claiming that meetings were being held to discuss the team’s plans for a second year of content. In other Ubisoft news, the company recently outlined some of the exciting stealth features coming with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. As for XDefiant, have you been enjoying the shooter? Let us know down below!
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