Transcribed from the video:
Let’s pour one out for XDefiant. The free-to-play live service first person shooter that aimed at that classic Call of Duty feel, has officially been unplugged forever, leaving some warning signs for gamers and game developers to come.
This game seemed to be pretty polarizing, in that some people loved it and others bounced off immediately. I’ll be the first to tell you, I loved it—for the most part. I think really I loved the idea of it and what the developers were trying to do more than the actual execution.
And let me be clear, I’m not trying to drag anyone or kick a game that’s already down. I respect the time and effort and passion that went into creating this thing, and I just wanna call out the things that appear to have doomed an otherwise worthy shooter.
So in no particular order, here are the lessons I hope the industry learns from XDefiant:
[1] Don’t create an online first person shooter in a game engine that wasn’t built for that
Ubisoft created the Snowdrop engine to be versatile and modular, and has been used in everything from The Division to Mario + Rabbids. But XDefiant was plagued with net code issues from the very beginning. We’re talking things like bullets not registering, enemies appearing “in the future” relative to their actions, and inconsistencies in flinch effects. Unfortunately, these problems popped up in the earliest betas, and never went away as far as I can tell. Which leads me to the next lesson…
[2] Don’t have a beta if you’re not prepared to address the feedback
I was part of two separate betas before this game came out, and there was a significant delay after one of them, so it was pretty surprising that when the game did launch, most of the concerns from the beta players were still present. I already mentioned the net code problems, but there was also a general consensus that some of the abilities were unbalanced and the game needed more maps, more modes, and just… more. Which might have been forgivable at launch if we didn’t have to talk about the third lesson…
[3] Live service games require constant content
If I had to guess, I think it’s likely that a lot of the planned content had to go on the backburner at some point as they kept going back to the drawing board with those dreaded net code issues. Or maybe they thought there was enough gameplay out of the gate that they didn’t need new factions and maps and all that until later. But by the time that stuff started trickling in, it was too little, too late. And as a free-to-play game, obviously the season passes and store items have to carry the game’s profitability. Speaking of which…
[4] Lesson four is The Store Needs More
I played well into Season 1 and had the pass, and I remember a few mildly interesting items to unlock, but nothing special. And I never saw anything in the store that made me want to fork over some cash. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. There just wasn’t much to offer at any given time, and what was there was usually only available a limited time. They tried to drive sales through FOMO when they should’ve been focusing on variety. And for players logging in for the first time, such a sparse store had to be a bad look. Leading to lesson #5…
[5] You have to stick the landing
This game was delayed several times, went through several betas and open betas, and ultimately launched without much marketing. Ubisoft made it clear this game was gonna live and die on its ability to generate hype all on its own. And guess what? It had over 1 million players in the first few hours, and reaching over 8 million players in the first week. This was everything they could have wanted, and probably exceeded their expectations. Well, I’m almost certain it exceeded their expectations because the servers were overwhelmed. Black screens, crashes, problems connecting to the server, you name it. Some of the players stuck around and ran into the problems we’ve already talked about, and a lot of other players bounced after the first week and never looked back. XDefiant had done the thing that was so hard to do in this environment: they had millions of players immediately, and in a lot of ways they squandered it. And what’s more impressive about that initial player count? They did it without Steam, which is the next lesson.
[6] Steam delivers
If you’re not going to market your game much and you’re going to rely on hype and word of mouth, why would you not recruit the ultimate hype machine? Playing XDefiant on PC required Ubisoft’s own separate game launcher, something that’s pretty unpopular with PC gamers, and it was still able to get a ton of players. That’s great for Ubisoft, but it really makes you wonder what it would’ve been like if it had been on Steam. What kind of concurrent players would’ve we been talking about? Could it have had even a fraction of the word-of-mouth buzz that something like Helldivers 2 was able to generate? Unfortunately for XDefiant, Ubisoft only recently changed their policy returned to releasing games on Steam, starting with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. So I have to think this is one lesson they’ve already taken to heart. The last lesson, well this one seems to be the hardest to get across…
[7] Stop it with the live service and crossover games, already
This one’s the most obvious, but we keep seeing it come up time and time again. Live service games have a huge audience, but those players are already hooked on a select few games and it’s not easy to pry to them away. Multiversus shut down the same week. This is after Concord, Babylon’s Fall, Spectre Divide, Blue Protocol, Gundam Evolution, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League all went dark in recent months and years. Not to mention Marathon, which seems to have “cancelled live service game” written all over it.
Also, crossover titles don’t have the appeal they used to. And let’s be honest: the Ubisoft IPs aren’t as exciting or iconic as you’d expect in a game featuring so many successful game franchises. You could’ve taken the game references away from these characters and I would’ve accepted them as just generic, original characters. Except the Assasin’s Creed faction, the hidden blade ultimate ability was badass and tied back to its franchise in a much cooler way than the others.
XDefiant’s Legacy
I really wonder what it would’ve been like if they had taken away the crossover IPs, add in some more maps and game modes out of the gate, and slap a $30 price tag on this thing. I don’t know, ultimately I think this game always tried to define itself by what it wasn’t. It didn’t have skill based matchmaking, it didn’t disband lobbies, it didn’t hit you over the head with monetization. This is all well and good and got their foot in the door with a lot of gamers, but once you have players you have to deliver. The technical issues, the lack of content in the first few months, all the other stuff we talked about—it was just too much to overcome.
The game was fun, the idea was solid: old school first person shooter with modern game modes—I mean sign me up! I think the developers were aiming at the right target, but I dunno, maybe the hit registration was off. XDefiant deserved better, but maybe we did, too.
