Ex-COD Dev’s New Shooter XDefiant At Ubisoft Delayed

XDefiant, the upcoming FPS from Ubisoft led by former Call of Duty boss Mark Rubin, has been delayed in what is the latest chapter of the game’s long and bumpy road to release.

In a social media post, Ubisoft said it hoped to release XDefiant by the end of March. However, there are “still some improvements” the studio has to make before it’s ready. Right now the focus is on an upcoming 12-hour stress test for the game’s servers, and Ubisoft is inviting its early access players to hop in and try to put the servers through their paces.

After this process, Ubisoft said it expects to be able to lock in a public release date and begin to discuss XDefiant’s post-launch content plans.

“Thank you again for standing by us,” Ubisoft said.

Just this week, Insider Gaming published a report containing behind-the-scenes info on XDefiant’s development process. In particular, the report called out a group of executives and directors on the project known internally as “The Boys Club.” These people reportedly “caused constant problems for the game’s development.”

“The Boys Club is a closed group of protected individuals who think they are better than everyone else and do as they please without any repercussions,” one developer said. Another worker said one person in particular “has a history of treating people extremely badly with more HR reports than I’ve ever seen.”

A source told Insider Gaming that the “constant changing of approved features,” among other things, led to the game being delayed “probably a year or so.”

A spokesperson for Ubisoft told Insider Gaming that it is “committed to the well-being and inclusivity of all our team members.” The statement added, “Our preventive approach includes promoting standards of respect and civility, awareness and training, and effective conflict resolution.” Ubisoft added that the company has an anonymous whistleblowing channel to help workers report bad behavior.

GameSpot has contacted Ubisoft for comment.

Previously, Ubisoft said XDefiant might launch in September or October 2023, but issues during the console certification process led to an earlier delay. Later, the game was delayed indefinitely.