XDefiant was a free-to-play first-person arena shooter that was meant to rival Call of Duty. Instead, XDefiant failed to overtake COD or even succeed at all. XDefiant was developed by Ubisoft San Francisco and was released on May 21, 2024. Unfortunately, it was permanently shut down on June 3, 2025. The studio was let go, too, with Ubisoft hiring over 143 employees.
Several design choices were responsible for XDefiant’s failure. Even game design choices made early in XDefiant’s game development later influenced and compounded problems that led to its closure. To avoid making the same mistakes, read on to learn how poor netcode, inadequate marketing, an unsuitable game engine, insufficient content updates, a lack of unique selling points, poor player retention systems, underwhelming monetization strategies, erratic pacing and flow, and hollow narrative moments led to XDefiant’s failure.
1. Poor netcode
Poor netcode caused XDefiant to lose a lot of players, due to persistent hit registration issues, desync, and unfair deaths that caused players to lose trust in the game. Netcode refers to the code and sever-client architecture used to run an online game. Netcode done right reduces desynchronization issues between a game server and the player’s platform. Since XDefiant struggled with its netcode, it made playing online impossible.
XDefiant’s netcode issues led to frustrating hit registration problems. Hit registration determines when a player hits their opponent or misses. In a competitive shooter such as XDefiant, hit accuracy is essential to have. Poor netcode meant that players shot their opponents, thinking they hit them, only to discover that they didn’t. Even worse, players who believed they were safe behind cover suddenly found themselves dying, making them believe that their opponent had shot through a wall and hit them. The problem became so bad that players left XDefiant in frustration.
Desynchronization occurs as a result of poor netcode, which players experienced a lot in XDefiant. Desynchronization occurs when the server is unable to connect with the player’s platform or client. The lost connection ejects the player from the game, returning them to the main menu. XDefiant faced significant desync problems at launch, which meant players were unable to enter matches let alone stay in them. They kept recycling through the queues instead of playing the game. Issues continued to occur even after XDefiant attempted to patch them.
Hit registration issues and desync led to frequent unfair deaths in XDefiant, causing players to lose trust in the game. XDefiant was intended to be a response to Call of Duty, launching at a time when players were frustrated with recent entries to the franchise. However, attracting players from a beloved series requires building trust. Poor netcode, which affected stats and gameplay, eroded that trust. As a result, players left XDefiant and returned to Call of Duty, which offered more reliable netcode performance by comparison.
2. Inadequate marketing
Inadequate marketing reduced how many players XDefiant reached from the start, due to not spending enough on marketing to expand the game’s reach in a competitive market, and then shifting its marketing budget to technical fixes. Marketing is an essential part of game development, as it helps make gamers aware of a new game. With so many games released in a year, it’s easy for games to become overlooked when they don’t have the marketing to break through all the noise. XDefiant’s lack of marketing and its strategies failed to keep players engaged.
When XDefiant was first announced, it generated significant social buzz, but word-of-mouth doesn’t replace traditional marketing. XDefiant relied heavily on streamers to drive interest. However, the lack of traditional marketing campaigns limited its reach. XDefiant was so focused on Call of Duty streamers that it forgot there are other FPS players out there.
XDefiant faced several technical issues that forced the studio to allocate its limited budget at launch. Marketing funds were redirected to address the problems, preventing the team from running as many campaigns as planned. Although community engagement remained strong, with regular updates posted to the playerbase, XDefiant lacked the resources to attract new players. As players left the game, XDefiant’s population declined without a strategy, or budget, to replace them.
3. Unsuitable game engine for an FPS
An unsuitable game engine for an FPS is a major reason behind XDefiant’s issues, including Snowdrop’s MMO origins, the engine’s missing FPS infrastructure, and the resulting and persistent technical fallout. Choosing the right game engine to make a game is an essential part of the design and planning stage for a game, and Ubisoft San Francisco failed to do its due diligence to ensure the game engine of choice supported the type of game it wanted to make. Working with the wrong engine from the start caused several issues that later trickled down into the main flaws that caused XDefiant to fail.
Ubisoft uses a proprietary engine called Snowdrop for several of its games, including XDefiant. Showdrop performs well for a few genres, but it wasn’t designed for the online competitive FPS genre. Unfortunately, Snowdrop was primarily made to make MMO-like games and lacked the native support for fast-paced FPS requirements, including high tick rates and optimized netcode. Ubisoft’s developers were experienced with Snowdrop and believed they’d be able to modify it to support XDefiant’s needs.
Snowdrop’s lack of competitive online FPS infrastructure forced the XDefiant team to build those systems from scratch. Ubisoft San Francisco spent significant time developing core components, including netcode and server-client architecture. The effort required the team to change the engine’s code, itself. Since the developers were spending so much time re-building the engine, that time was diverted away from other areas of game development. With deadlines approaching, XDefiant launched without all the promised features. As the team continued to adapt the engine to the game’s needs, it led to more delays, which further frustrated players.
Snowdrop continued to cause technical problems even after it was rebuilt to support FPS systems. Issues such as desync, input lag, and players dying behind cover weren’t able to be fixed quickly because resolving them required deeper engine changes. Troubleshooting issues became more difficult as the team struggled to determine whether the problems were caused by the netcode or the engine itself. Players abandoned XDefiant as these issues continued.
4. Insufficient content updates
Insufficient content updates made players lose interest in XDefiant because it was unable to compete with other FPS games, leading to player abandonment. XDefiant faced a ton of problems at launch, and with the team trying to fix those issues, it meant they weren’t able to focus on content. Ongoing content is essential for the survival of a FPS game because the content grows stale over time. Content keeps players engaged, and with a free-to-play game including XDefiant that relies on high player counts, not providing enough of it makes players leave, which affects the game’s ability to support itself.
XDefiant handled content updates differently from competitors such as Call of Duty and Apex Legends, particularly with its release schedule. Call of Duty, its main competitor, delivers new content on a bi-monthly basis, with updates players anticipate. In contrast, XDefiant released content roughly every seven months, leaving players in gameplay droughts. Players coming from Call of Duty expected frequent updates but instead became bored between releases.
The content XDefiant released failed to sustain player interest. XDefiant’s main selling point was uniting factions from across the Ubisoft universe, but it did not deliver factions, maps, or modes that players cared about. The novelty of playing a Splinter Cell-inspired character was exciting at first, but similar gameplay across factions made everything feel repetitive. With each season adding only a few maps and factions, players found the pace too slow to stay invested.
5. Lack of unique selling points
A lack of unique selling points, including an uninspired faction system, unoriginal game modes, lack of unique mechanics, and a weak identity, contributed to XDefiant’s collapse. XDefiant was made to challenge Call of Duty. Ubisoft believed that its wide universe of factions and settings was enough to differentiate the game and make players interested in it, but its failure to distinguish itself from Call of Duty and other FPS games only made it seem bland and uninteresting.
XDefiant aimed to attract Call of Duty players, but its focus on Ubisoft-based factions and hero shooter elements alienated them. Ubisoft relied heavily on its existing IP to build playable factions, but it didn’t offer a narrative reason to explain why all the factions were fighting in the first place. The lack of a cohesive story weakened the concept. Blending Call of Duty gunplay with hero abilities made XDefiant provide a type of gameplay that its target audience wasn’t interested in. The Call of Duty audience prefers skill-based gunfights over character abilities that dominate a match. Due to its design choices, XDefiant failed to attract and keep its target audience.
XDefiant featured only a handful of game modes at launch, such as Domination and Escort, with none of the game modes improving on the format. Successful competitive FPS titles innovate or refine existing game modes, but XDefiant introduced nothing new. Players were left with familiar content found elsewhere. When technical issues made XDefiant frustrating, its lack of a distinct experience failed to keep players engaged. Many players returned to the FPS titles that offered the same type of gameplay but without the technical problems.
A lack of unique mechanics made XDefiant too similar to other competitive FPS games. XDefiant copied familiar gameplay systems without distinguishing its own. Valorant made itself stand out by emphasizing its movement and tactical systems, for example. Without clear mechanical differentiation, XDefiant offered little to master, leaving players feeling as though they had already experienced what XDefiant offered elsewhere.
XDefiant’s weak identity became obvious when it marketed itself as a Call of Duty killer. XDefiant relied heavily on nostalgia, as many multiverse-style games do. Nostalgia attracts players initially, but flaws drive players away once the nostalgia wears off. Ubisoft failed to leverage its nostalgia effectively, too. It focused on factions rather than iconic characters from its catalog. XDefiant ultimately was a Call of Duty copycat that neither matched Call of Duty’s immersion nor offered anything distinctive to the competitive FPs genre.
6. Poor player retention systems
Poor player retention systems failed to keep players engaged with XDefiant, due to an absence of skill-based matchmaking, a slow battle pass progression, and a lackluster post-launch experience. XDefiant pulled in millions of players during its beta and initial launch, but it started to bleed players as time went on. In a matter of months, XDefiant was unable to keep above 20,000 concurrent players. Its inability to retain players showed that it had poor player retention systems in place.
A major issue that kept players from continuing with XDefiant was its lack of skill-based matchmaking. Although controversial, most FPS players agree skill-based matchmaking must exist in some form in a competitive FPS game. Skill-based matchmaking places players in matches with other players of similar skill. Without it, new players were regularly matched against advanced players in XDefiant, and immediately overwhelmed. The poor first impression XDefiant provided led many new players to quit rather than continue improving their skills.
Progression systems are essential in competitive FPS games, but XDefiant’s battle pass was tedious and grind-heavy. Players completed basic objectives to earn battle pass XP, but these tasks required significant time investment. Players coming from Call of Duty expected engaging challenges but instead had to grind kills or use specific weapons repeatedly. Slow XP earn rates made the grind worse, driving players back to Call of Duty, which offered faster and more rewarding battle pass progression.
XDefiant’s post-launch support failed to retain players long-term. XDefiant’s decision to space out content updates frustrated players. The long waits for new maps, factions, and game modes led players to switch to games with faster update cycles. By the time new content arrived, players had already moved on and were no longer invested enough to return to XDefiant.
7. Underwhelming monetization strategy
An underwhelming monetization strategy made XDefiant lose money because of its unappealing cosmetics, overpriced items, and slow battle pass progression. As a free-to-play game, XDefiant relied on its monetization strategies to keep the game funded. Poor monetization strategies resulted in the game not earning enough to warrant its high server costs, leading to Ubisoft to shut down the game and the studio.
XDefiant’s monetization strategy struggled due to unappealing cosmetics. The designs didn’t align with its target audience’s preferences. XDefiant featured flashy, brightly-colored, skins, which clashed with the tastes of Call of Duty players. Many of the factions in XDefiant’s roster were based in realism, so putting a neon-colored skin on a spy’s torso didn’t make sense, for example. When XDefiant shifted toward realism with its skins, the cosmetics became bland and not worth the cost. XDefiant followed FPS trends instead of providing cosmetics players actually enjoyed.
Players considered XDefiant’s character skins and cosmetics overpriced. Character skins cost around $25, while weapon skins cost about $10 for minimal visual changes. Players perceived the value as low, especially compared to other competitive FPS game stores. High prices removed impulse purchases, and with the perception that the cosmetics were overpriced, spending was low. The lack of purchases further hurt XDefiant’s financial performance.
A common monetization strategy in free-to-play FPS games is offering premium battle tiers, but XDefiant failed to deliver exciting rewards. When premium awards are not meaningfully better than those in the free tier, players aren’t incentivized to purchase. XDefiant’s lackluster premium rewards didn’t motivate players to spend money.
8. Erratic pacing and flow
Erratic pacing and flow, including a chaotic match flow, inconsistent input responses, and overpowered movement are reasons why XDefiant was unsuccessful. Pacing matters in a FPS game like XDefiant, especially when XDefiant’s target audience is Call of Duty. Call of Duty players expect smooth pacing and flow, allowing them to strategize when they need to and head into chaos when they’re ready. XDefiant’s design choices created erratic pacing instead.
XDefiant’s lack of balance created chaotic match flow, with players spawning and then immediately dying. New players entered matches only to be killed before they were able to move or actually play the game. XDefiant launched matches without full lobbies at times, giving teams an unfair advantage. The fast, disorganized pace prevented coordinated attacks or defenses, reducing matches to constant firefights. New players found repeated deaths discouraging, and Call of Duty players found the lack of technical depth in XDefiant boring.
XDefiant’s technical issues disrupted pacing and flow. Players experienced frame rate drops that left them exposed. When the frame rate drop was coupled with lag, players had no choice but to stay in place until the game updated, and they were able to move again, leaving them vulnerable in the meantime. Other issues, such as micro-stutters and desyncing, disrupted gameplay further. Any excitement or momentum players felt abruptly ended when they were kicked from a match.
The unbalanced movement further disrupted match pacing in XDefiant. Players were able to jump and strafe to the point of exploitation. While using the movement system is a part of skill in a competitive FPS game, XDefiant failed to balance against its abuses. Valorant reduces weapon accuracy while moving to encourage tactical positioning and strategy, for instance. Without similar structures, XDefiant allowed players to exploit movement mechanics instead of relying on gunplay skill.
9. Hollow narrative moments
Hollow narrative moments made XDefiant boring to play, due to a lack of narrative depth, an absence of storytelling hooks, and no campaign or story mode. XDefiant lacked a narrative, focusing instead on simply bringing together beloved factions from across Ubisoft’s IP. Unfortunately, in a market as saturated and competitive as the FPS genre, a lack of story tying everything together makes the game unappealing, uninteresting, and not unique.
XDefiant lacked narrative depth and a narrative as a whole. Players were able to choose factions including DedSec from Watch Dogs and the Highwaymen from Far Cry New Dawn, but without a cohesive storyline connecting them, the experience was hollow. Players didn’t understand why the factions were fighting, which meant victories lacked impact. There wasn’t a larger purpose behind conflicts when adding a simple story adds so much more value to the stakes, such as the Highwaymen attempting to seize DedSec’s resources to use them to destroy Eden’s Gate, for example. In contrast, Call of Duty has a clear purpose and story for why players are fighting against each other, compelling players to seize victory at all cost.
The lack of storytelling hooks in XDefiant’s seasonal events demonstrated its hollow narrative. Without a narrative foundation, new maps or factions generated only a brief round of excitement. Players initially enjoyed seeing new additions, but the absence of story context caused that excitement to die quickly. After trying the seasonal content, there was little reason to continue playing as players didn’t feel emotionally connected to the gameplay.
XDefiant lacked a campaign or story mode, alienating casual and single players. Not all competitive FPS players want to compete online. Without a single-player option, the game failed to attract them. Players who value story or narrative context found little reason to stick with XDefiant, especially when Call of Duty satisfied their multiplayer and single player experience needs. At its worst, the absence of a campaign made XDefiant seem as though it was a shallow clone rather than a distinct alternative to Call of Duty.
What can game designers learn from XDefiant game’s failure?
Game designers can learn how to choose an engine, polish technical gameplay first, plan a content roadmap, create successful monetization strategies, define a unique identity, and commit to an aggressive marketing campaign from XDefiant game’s failure. Design choices led to many of the problems that XDefiant experienced. Knowing effective game design from poor game design begins with a solid education from a reputable source, such as Game Design Skills, which provides lessons and courses from professional game designers and developers in the industry.
XDefiant failed from the start when it chose to use a game engine that wasn’t made for the type of game that XDefiant was. Even though the team had used Snowdrop before, it spent far too much time reworking the engine to do the things it needed the engine to do. Designers must consider all engines available to them and choose the one that supports the type of game they’re making the most. Teams are always able to learn how to use new engines.
XDefiant broke player trust when it launched without many of the features it had promised to them. XDefiant told players that they were going to include game modes and features, but when players got their hands on the game, those modes and features were missing. The lack of transparency made players confused and lied to. Designers must polish and be sure of their core gameplay pillars before advertising them. Overpromising or just saying things to generate hype only leads to player disappointment.
A content roadmap gives players confidence that the game is going to be supported long-term, but XDefiant failed to provide one. When a content roadmap doesn’t exist, players get anxious. They don’t want to invest their money or time into a game that they believe is going to disappear at any time. Designers must provide a form of content roadmap as soon as possible to ensure players that the team is committed to supporting the game. Even using a general timeline with Q2 or Q4 as milestones gives players confidence that content is coming. Designers must ensure that they set realistic deadlines to avoid player disappointment and team burnout, too.
The monetization strategy XDefiant relied on was primarily tied to premium prices, but because they were much higher than their competitor’s, players weren’t interested in paying. XDefiant relied too much on nostalgia, thinking that it’d be enough to warrant the high prices for cosmetics. The team learned that wasn’t the case. Designers must first understand what actually makes their players buy, then create content that reinforces that spending behavior at a fair price.
XDefiant didn’t have a clear identity aside from its familiar factions used in Ubisoft’s past titles, and this lack of identity made the game too generic to be of interest. Nostalgia gets players through the doors, but it wears off, and when the game doesn’t offer anything else unique, players start to slip away. Designers must consider a few elements that make their game different from others. The game must provide an experience that players are only able to get with it alone.
XDefiant performed hardly any marketing initially, relying instead on word-of-mouth through streamers. The problem with relying on word-of-mouth is that once people stop talking about the game, interest dies fast. Designers are able to use word-of-mouth to drive hype up about their game, but they must use traditional marketing campaigns, too. Not only does marketing allow the team to communicate directly to players, it expands the game’s reach. Marketing mustn’t stop after the game’s launch, either. Advertising new seasons is an effective way to attract new players to the game, for example.
