Late Tuesday, Ubisoft announced that the servers for their multiplayer XDefiant will be shutting down in June 2025, amid the unfortunate closure of two of its studios.
In a statement Ubisoft has explained that as of Tuesday, December 3, players and fans will no longer be able to download XDefiant, a live service FPS that served as Ubisoft’s answer to Call of Duty. This is to pre-empt the permanent shutdown of the title’s servers in June 2025. Interestingly, the title’s incoming third season will continue as planned amid the doom counter to June. The massive statement can be found on the official FPS’ X (formerly Twitter) account, or below.
Ubisoft has made another decision that will seemingly rock the boat: it has announced the closure of two development studios, in Osaka, Japan, and San Francisco. Ubisoft also said its studio in Sydney is “ramping down.” Amid the closures, Gamefile’s Stephen Totilo claims 177 employees will reportedly be laid off, and half of the FPS team will be moved “to other projects,” similar to the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team, which was disbanded in October.
Although XDefiant made a public statement to fans, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot supported the report in an internal memo to employees, as reported by Insider Gaming, providing reasoning for Ubisoft’s recent decisions. Guillemot said, “I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the tremendous work done by XDefiant’s teams. Their goal was to challenge the best shooter on the market, but despite the intensity of their efforts, it was not enough.” He added, “We will continue working on evolving our organization to adapt to market changes, with a long-term perspective in mind,” referring to the studio closures and impending layoffs.
In October 2024, executive producer Mark Rubin denied reports that XDefiant was losing players, stating, “To be crystal clear, there are NO plans to shut down after season 4” in response to those reports. It appears even the executive producer was taken off guard by the sudden FPS shutdown.
Fans will be able to play XDefiant until the final call in June 2025.
