XDefiant has now published the patch notes for version Y1S0.3.
As reported by CharlieIntel, the big change has been penalizing jump spamming, so we can see that Ubisoft’s XDefiant team is paying close attention to the community finding exploits. These exploits are usually intended to gain an advantage over other players, by using the game’s own systems.
Those players using those exploits were right to believe that Ubisoft would not take away the ability to do this exploit, because doing so would change the way the game plays. So their solution is to add aiming penalties, making the practice undesirable.
Now, the XDefiant team’s choice is very interesting. It’s possible for a high level player to be doing so well that they would keep jump spamming, since they’re good enough to compensate. How this plays out would depend on if such a high level player is out there, and also, if Ubisoft has planned for that possibility as well.
With Call of Duty Black Ops 6 arriving all the way in October, now is Ubisoft’s time to make sure they get as many XDefiant players hooked as possible. Now, to be clear, this isn’t a matter of players choosing between Call of Duty and XDefiant completely.
Ubisoft will definitely know that they will see their players numbers dip when Call of Duty Black Ops 6 launches. Now, we don’t know how well this game will turn out. If it turns out Treyarch and Raven make a dud, Ubisoft will have an opportunity to exploit.
While we are talking about this possibility, we do have to make it clear that this isn’t something Ubisoft should pin their hopes on. With XDefiant being a live service title, Ubisoft has to play the long game.
And the long game is to make XDefiant so addictive that their fans will willingly go back to play their game, after those fans get their fill of Call of Duty Black Ops 6. And of course, there will be players who take turns playing both games. We do expect both games are going to see their peak player numbers over the holidays, and if they’re both still good, there will definitely be an overlap.
The XDefiant team also addressed several minor and technical bugs, such as players finding their in-game characters splitting in two while they are playing Escort. You can read the rest of the patch notes here.
