XDefiant Rumor Suggests Game Could Have Massive Competition on Its Launch Day
[ad_1]
Highlights
- XDefiant, Ubisoft’s upcoming free-to-play shooter, is rumored to be targeting an October 17 release, potentially competing directly with Call of Duty Season 6.
- The game, which combines elements from various Tom Clancy franchises, dropped the late novelist’s branding and aims to deliver thrilling multiplayer action.
- The release date is still tentative and depends on the ongoing review of the game’s latest public test session to avoid any issues that led to its failed certification earlier.
XDefiant is targeting an October 17 release, pending some conditions, according to a newly surfaced rumor. This would pit Ubisoft’s free-to-play shooter directly against the juggernauts that are Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone, not least because Call of Duty Season 6 is expected to hit its stride on that exact date.
Originally announced as Tom Clancy’s XDefiant in July 2021, Ubisoft San Francisco’s online FPS ended up dropping the late novelist’s branding come the following spring. Despite that change, the game still promises to deliver thrilling multiplayer action combining elements from a wide variety of Tom Clancy’s franchises, including Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and The Division. When exactly that’s meant happen is still unclear, especially after the shooter failed the Xbox and PlayStation certification process in the first half of September.
And while Ubisoft has yet to follow up on the news of XDefiant‘s indefinite delay, leaker el_bobberto has now taken to Twitter to claim that the company is aiming to release the FPS on October 17. The date itself is still said to be tentative, as it reportedly hinges on the developer not finding any new problems during its ongoing review of the game’s latest public test session, which took place on September 28.
Given that context, even taking this claim at face value wouldn’t imply that a mid-October launch is set in stone. As a reminder, the late September XDefiant beta was held with the explicit purpose of helping Ubisoft identify technical issues with the game that were the reason it was denied certification from PlayStation and Xbox in the first place.
That notwithstanding, if Ubisoft is indeed targeting an October 17 release, its perception of XDefiant can be described as nothing short of bullish. Namely, that’s the exact date when the Call of Duty Season 6 Haunting event is scheduled to begin in Warzone and Modern Warfare 2. Going directly against the most popular shooter franchise in existence would be quite a statement of intent from Ubisoft, which would clearly signal the company has full confidence in XDefiant being capable of hitting the ground running purely on its own merits and irrespective of any rivals.
Rescheduling game releases in order to circumvent direct competition is a fairly standard industry practice, as most recently underlined by Larian Studios’ decision to launch the PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 a month early with the intent of avoiding Starfield. But although Ubisoft’s market cap is twenty times smaller than that of Activision, the company historically hasn’t shied away from such direct clashes with competitors, with this newly emerged XDefiant release date rumor fitting that trend.
XDefiant is coming soon to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source link
