XDefiant has announced that it is delaying the launch of its preseason following its public test session. The developers behind Ubisoft’s upcoming the free-to-play, first-person arena shooter said the testing highlighted inconsistencies in the gameplay experience. Currently, the team did not confirm when (or if) fans can expect to play XDefiant.
This year has been rough for top publishers that want to add premium live-service FPS titles to their portfolios. The upside of consistent player engagement is tempting, but these games can be a major gamble for studios. If titles fail to attract and keep an audience, they can turn into expensive and unplayable blunders.
Studios must make the decision to keep these games going in the hopes that more support will attract an audience. Or they have to shut failing live-service games down before they take a studio down with it. For example, 2017’s LawBreakers from Boss Key Games performed so poorly that the studio’s development team was shut down just months after launch. The game was shut down shortly thereafter, just over a year after launching.
More studios are following XDefiant’s lead and choosing to delay or cancel these projects before they launch. Ubisoft cancelled Hyenas, a multiplayer sci-fi FPS from Creative Assembly, on September 28. Last week, Naughty Dog reportedly laid off at least 25 contractors calling the future of The Last of Us Part II’s multiplayer mode into question.
If XDefiant does launch, it has a number of competitors on the horizon. Firewalk’s Concord, Bungie’s Marathon and potentially Netflix are throwing their hat into the ring.