Ubisoft has announced XDefiant has been delayed due to console certification issues, with the game now “likely” set for an October launch.
XDefiant, a free-to-play crossover shooter featuring factions from Tom Clancy titles fighting against Watch Dogs‘ DedSec and Far Cry‘s Libertad, has been in development since 2021. Ubisoft, however, never pinned a specific date on XDefiant. A closed beta was held in April of this year but it suffered from technical disruptions like server downtime and performance issues.
In a post to Ubisoft’s official website, executive producer Mark Rubin said that he wanted to offer fans “full transparency” over why the game would not meet its previously planned release in the summer.
“At the end of July, we started [the console certification] process, and we got our first results back by mid-August which was a Not Pass. We realized then that we had more work related to compliance than we had anticipated,” he explained.
He elaborated that XDefiant underwent a week of “heavy QA & Compliance testing by several Ubisoft teams” prior to the submission to Microsoft and Sony. Additionally, had the game passed in the first instance, then the shooter would have hit the shelves at the end of August.
“We have spent the last 3-4 weeks fixing those issues and getting ready to do another submission. We are currently in the CM prep part of that process and will hopefully be submitting to 1st parties in a little less than 2 weeks,” Rubin continued.
Should all go according to plan, then the team expects to launch XDefiant in the “mid-to-end of September”. Yet, it is “likely” that the game will get a conditional Pass under the consideration of a day one patch. That would then move the game into “early/mid-October”.
October is a very busy month, with Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Forza Motorsport, Ghostrunner 2, Hellboy: Web Of Wyrd, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, Just Dance 2024, Lords Of The Fallen, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, NHL 24, Sonic Superstars and Super Mario Bros. Wonder all launching within that window.
THQ Nordic, the publisher of the Alone In The Dark reboot, elected to delay that game out of October to sidestep these other titles. Therefore, it is imaginable that Ubisoft might hold onto XDefiant for the same reason.
In other gaming news, Techland acknowledged the poor response from Dying Light 2 players on the game’s new currency and said it is “working on a couple of solutions proposed by the community.”
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