Is Ubisoft's decision to shut down XDefiant a missed opportunity amid Black Ops 6's struggles?

Ubisoft's decision to shut down XDefiant couldn't have come at a worse time. With Black Ops 6 struggling to maintain a foothold, XDefiant might have just missed the ultimate opportunity to strike back. On December 4, 2024, the Executive Producer of XDefiant, Mark Rubin, confirmed that the shooter was shutting down and the game's servers would go offline in Q2 of 2025. The news came less than a year after the game's official release.

Often deemed as the Call of Duty killer, despite seemingly doing everything right and standing by fans, XDefiant is being shut down. There are multiple reasons for this. Numerous delays, a lot of issues at launch, and more, eventually led to the game's downfall.

Despite these issues, the shooter boasted a healthy player count early on but was overshadowed by MW3 (2023) and Black Ops 6.

However, this might be a missed opportunity for Ubisoft as their primary competitor, Black Ops 6, is not having the best time, and to be frank, the shooter is possibly in its worst state since launch.

Note: Aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the writer's opinions.

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Why Ubisoft's decision to pull the plug on XDefiant might be a mistake now that Black Ops 6 is losing steam?

Ubisoft might just have missed the perfect opportunity to take on Call of Duty. Their latest entry, Black Ops 6, did surprisingly well at launch. However, with the Season 1 update and introduction of Ranked Play, the game has seen a tremendous surge in cheating. The situation has become so bad that cheaters can now get legit players shadowbanned and crash entire lobbies.

Many professional players, content creators, and prominent figures in the industry have reached out to Call of Duty regarding the cheating issues. It has become that much worse. Many well-known figures such as Nadeshot and FaZe Swagg are considering stepping away from Call of Duty.

But it's not just the cheaters. The game also has server issues that often translate to sudden high latency, packet bursts, hit registration issues, and more. Black Ops 6's PC port isn't doing well either. Poor frame rates, stutters, and frequent crashes have made it an unplayable experience for many.

These issues, most of which have been overlooked by developers, have led to the game losing its player base. On Steam alone, Black Ops 6 and Warzone combined had a 24-hour peak of over 300,000 players on October 27, 2024. However, in the last week, the title managed to reach a 24-hour peak of only a little over 112,000.

That's losing almost one-third of the player base in less than three months of Black Ops 6's release. But these numbers are from Steam alone. However, as the game faces backlash and players are looking for alternate shooters, XDefiant might have been the ideal replacement.

XDefiant is everything that fans asked of Call of Duty but they didn't deliver. It has a robust anti-cheat system, arcade gameplay, no Skill-Based Matchmaking, and a lot more, basically everything that Call of Duty fans asked for. However, the game struggled in the market. Its release couldn't have come at a worse time.

XDefiant missed the initial release time window when people were frustrated with Modern Warfare 2 (2022). When it was finally ready for release, Modern Warfare 3 (2023) had overshadowed the title with its interesting content updates.

Right after the heat of MW3 died down, XDefiant had another opportunity to strike. But Black Ops 6 once again came out on top. However, the latest Call of Duty title is losing momentum much faster than Modern Warfare 3 (2023) did. XDefiant now has the perfect opportunity to sway Call of Duty fans to join their side.

As players are becoming less interested in COD Black Ops 6 and its plethora of issues, XDefiant could have truly been the Call of Duty killer (and it still can be) if it had gone on the offensive instead of deciding to shut down. But at the end of the day, it seems like Ubisoft missed the boat.

If they had stayed in the market for a little longer, they might have just found their place among arcade shooter fans, potentially even giving the makers of Call of Duty a run for their money.

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For the latest XDefiant news and guides, check out the articles linked below:

• XDefiant Season 3 might just be taking a leaf out of Marvel Rivals' playbook
• All new factions in XDF Season 3 explained
• XDF Season 3 patch notes: New maps, bug fixes, and more
• How to get a refund on XDefiant Ultimate Founder's Pack
• XDefiant fans have started a petition to save the shooter from shutting down