In a blog post made by Mark Rubin on Ubisoft’s website earlier this month, it was claimed that the free-to-play shooter XDefiant wasn’t dying despite persistent rumors online. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case, as the company’s CEO Yves Guillemot has now confirmed that the title has fallen behind expectations.
In a Trading Call Update, Guillmot answered questions regarding the decision to reduce Ubisoft’s second-quarter revenue expectations by around 30 percent.
“It mostly reflects the softer-than-expected sales for Star Wars Outlaws. We also had behind expectations for XDefiant, which we will give you a bit more detail at the end of October,” he said. “To a much lesser extent, with a limited impact was a lower expectation for XDefiant.”
In an attempt to lure players back to the game, Ubisoft recently gave away nearly $10 worth of virtual currency in XDefiant. New weapons, maps, devices, factions, and event challenges are on the way, along with ranked loadouts, ranked map voting, and a Top 500 Leaderboard, according to a recently revealed roadmap. It’s unclear if any of this new content will be impacted.
Last week, it was announced that Ubisoft’s share price had dropped to its lowest level since around 2015 following the release of Star Wars Outlaws and the sudden delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The company’s share price has been declining consistently over the past few years, dropping nearly 89%.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed from November 15, 2024 to February 14, 2025. This announcement, made last week, was particularly painful, as PlayStation announced Ghost of Yotei around the same time, with both games set in historical Japan and set to release in 2025.
XDefiant was released on May 21, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
