While it had a very strong launch, a report from Insider-Gaming claimed that the team behind XDefiant had a few short months to get numbers back up, or the plug would be pulled on post-launch support.
Ubisoft hasn’t directly denied that report, but it denies the story it tells, saying “No, the game is absolutely not dying,” in a blog post providing a roadmap update for Year 1 of the game.
Which was then followed-up with a full reveal of Season 2 and three new maps, three new weapons, a new game mode, a new faction and more that’ll all launch on September 25, 2024.
The new faction are called the Highwaymen, a new class that by all accounts is all about overwhelming other players with offense.
Their passive increases your ADS and reload speed with each kill up to four kills for a max speed, the tactical is a grenade launcher or an auto-turret, and their ultimate is a gun that shoots buzzsaws for one-hit kills.
Compared to the rest of the factions which each have more of a balance between offensive and defensive abilities, it’ll be a wonder why anyone picks a different faction when the Highwaymen launch.
The three new maps include Waterfront, a larger map that’ll be available at launch meant to give players a chance to test their marksmanship. Signal and Air & Space round out the three, but those will come later on in the season.
As for the new game mode, XDefiant is finally adding its own Search and Destroy mode with Bomb, which is functionally just S&D, but the different faction abilities look like they shake things up.
You can check out the full run-down of Season 2 with gameplay showcasing everything in Ubisoft’s XDebrief show for yourself, below.
XDefiant arrived on PC and consoles earlier this year as Ubisoft’s latest attempt at a live service FPS not called Rainbow Six. It’s an arena hero-shooter that’s a bit like Fortnite, if there only characters available in Fortnite were from other Epic Games IP’s.
Like Fortnite was for Epic, XDefiant is a huge bet for Ubisoft, as it tries to establish a new forever-game to compete with Call Of Duty and every other free-to-play game. It’s an even bigger risk when you consider that it brings together all of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises (that can remain relevant in a FPS, so no Assassin’s Creed). What would that say about Ubisoft, if a game chock full of its own IP’s can’t succeed?
The same report that claimed XDefiant’s numbers were declining also claimed that internally developers were very concerned about how Season 2 will perform, since it’ll be arriving a month before Black Ops 6 launches.
Hopefully then for Ubisoft’s sake, Season 2 of XDefiant is able to make a big impact in those four weeks before every FPS player presumably jumps onto Black Ops.
Source – [Ubisoft]
