XDefiant, Ubisoft’s free-to-play multiplayer shooter that was released in the spring of 2024, is closing as expected. This was announced by the game’s executive producer Mark Rubin on social media.

Rubin announced on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, that as of that day, new downloads and new player registrations are no longer available. The content for the third season is still planned to be released in the near future, but the game’s servers will officially stop working on June 3, 2025.

XDefiant was the fastest game in the history of any Ubisoft project to pass the 5 million player mark, with 8 million players playing the game in its first week. Since its release on May 21, 2024, more than 15 million people have played the game. Nevertheless, the free-to-play model has not justified itself either in terms of the number of active players or earnings.

“Free-to-play, in particular, is a long journey. Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable. It’s a long journey that Ubisoft and the teams working on the game were prepared to make until very recently. But unfortunately, the journey became too much to sensibly continue,” Rubin wrote.

Besides, according to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft is cutting teams in San Francisco and Osaka that worked on XDefiant. According to the publication, the company has already started a wave of layoffs and plans another one in February. In total, about 277 people will lose their jobs.

Players who purchased the Ultimate Founder’s Pack will receive a full refund. Players who have made any in-game purchases within the last 30 days will also receive a refund. Refunds will be made automatically within the next two months.

We would like to remind you that XDefiant, among other things, became the first major Ubisoft game to receive Ukrainian text localization at the time of its release.