Ubisoft has announced that it will shut down the servers for its competitive first-person shooter XDefiant next year, and two of the company's studios will close while a third will "ramp down" production.
In a message on its official website, Ubisoft says that the "sunset process" for XDefiant has already begun. As of yesterday, you can no longer download XDefiant as a new player, register to play it, or purchase any in-game content.
Despite the fact that XDefiant is shutting down, its third season will still launch, although after that, no new content will be added to the game. We don't yet know when Season 3 will launch, but you can expect it to land in the next couple of months.
If you bought XDefiant's Ultimate Founders Pack, you'll be entitled to a full refund, and if you bought any virtual currency or DLC for the game on or after November 3rd, you'll get a refund for that as well.
Additionally, if you do want to keep playing XDefiant, you'll be able to do so until the servers shut down, which will happen on June 3rd. That's only if you've already signed up and downloaded it, of course.
What's more, according to Ubisoft's chief studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert, Ubisoft's San Francisco and Osaka studios will close down.
The San Francisco studio was the one responsible for developing XDefiant, while the Osaka studio has worked on several of Ubisoft's games over the years, including series like Petz and Rocksmith.
In her post, de Waubert also refers to the "ramp down of the Sydney production site". She expresses her "deepest gratitude" to "those team members leaving Ubisoft", although she doesn't confirm how many people the shutdowns will affect.
According to Game File's Stephen Totilo, up to 277 people could lose their jobs, although Totilo also says that half of the XDefiant team will be reallocated to other Ubisoft projects.
It's been a rough year for Ubisoft; the company has hemorrhaged money this year after seemingly suffering high-profile financial flops, including the likes of Star Wars Outlaws and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (and now XDefiant as well).
Ubisoft's performance has led to angry investors calling for structural change at the company, with heads the Guillemots and investor Tencent reportedly considering taking the company private in response.
Layoffs at Ubisoft are part of a wider industry wave that has affected big and small companies alike. Latest estimates suggest that 2024's layoffs total more than 2023's and 2022's combined, and that this year is just a few hundred layoffs away from doubling 2023's total.
