More layoffs at Ubisoft with XDefiant’s servers shutting down

The free-to-play live-service shooter developed and published by Ubisoft, XDefiant, has shut down all further development as of December 4th, 2024.

In a statement on the company’s website, Ubisoft’s Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert announced that Ubisoft will “discontinue development on XDefiant”. Although the game will halt all development, servers for XDefiant will remain active until June 3, 2025.

“Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work, and a committed fan base, we’ve not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market”. Waubert wrote, adding that “as of today, new downloads, player registrations and purchases will no longer be available”.

Waubert’s announcement stated that the termination of XDefiant’s servers will also see the closure of both the San Francisco and Osaka production studios, as well as the Sydney production site, with a total of 277 employees being let go.

Additionally, Ubisoft will “take the necessary steps to put the company back on a path to growth, innovation and creativity and make sure we can set you up for success, […] continuing to radically evolve our mindset for Production and Business practices [and] doing targeted restructuring when necessary”.

However, this is not the first time this year that Ubisoft has had to let employees go. In August this year, Bloomberg reported that Ubisoft cut 45 jobs from the teams in their offices in San Francisco, California and Cary, North Carolina, the latter of which had cancelled Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland.

According to data available on Obsidian’s Game Industry Layoffs tracker, the gaming industry has seen over 14,000 layoffs in 2024, significantly surpassing the 10,500 layoffs recorded in 2023.