XDefiant Director Exits, Cites Ubisoft's Lack of Support

XDefiant servers were taken offline on Tuesday, June 3, just over a year after Ubisoft's free-to-play arena shooter launched. The company pulled support for its Call of Duty competitor within months, while nearly half the development team faced layoffs as Ubisoft restructured its San Francisco and Osaka studios.

Mark Rubin, the game's producer and former Call of Duty developer at Activision, described it as a "sad day" in an X/Twitter post earlier today. After praising his team for creating an "exceptionally fun and polished game," he revealed his decision to permanently exit the gaming industry.

"The entire XDefiant team was laid off late last year," Rubin explained. "While many have found positions at other studios – which is fantastic – I've chosen to step away from game development entirely to focus on family. You won't see me working on another title."

"My passion for shooter games remains strong, and I hope another team will champion the player-first philosophy we valued – creating experiences that respect and listen to their community."

Despite minimal marketing, Rubin highlighted XDefiant's record-breaking player acquisition during its first weeks, attributing its early success entirely to word-of-mouth popularity.

"Without sustained marketing post-launch, new player growth stalled," he noted, also criticizing Ubisoft's proprietary engine as fundamentally incompatible with XDefiant's technical requirements.

"We were transparent about our core challenges. The engine's original design couldn't support our needs, and we lacked the engineering bandwidth to rebuild it. In-house engines often can't compete with industry standards like Unreal in today's landscape."

"Network performance became our biggest hurdle. While stable connections provided smooth gameplay, even minor inconsistencies caused unacceptable disruptions – an issue most modern shooters compensate for effectively."

XDefiant Gameplay Screenshots

View 14 Images

Content development limitations further hampered the project. "Our Season 3 offerings barely met launch expectations," Rubin admitted. "Exciting Season 4-5 features could have realized the game's full potential, but free-to-play demands outpaced our production capacity."

Ubisoft's October 2024 reversal – first denying, then confirming XDefiant's shutdown weeks later – followed our 7/10 review citing strong foundations undermined by design inconsistencies in a competitive genre.