Summary
XDefiantis 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 areModern Warfare 2andWarzone, not least becauseCall of DutySeason 6is expected to hit its stride on that exact date.
Originallyannounced asTom Clancy’s XDefiantin 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 ofTom Clancy’sfranchises, includingSplinter Cell,Ghost Recon, andThe 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 onthe news ofXDefiant’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 SeptemberXDefiantbeta 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 ofXDefiantcan be described as nothing short of bullish. Namely, that’s the exact date whentheCall of DutySeason 6 Haunting eventis scheduled to begin inWarzoneandModern 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 inXDefiantbeing capable of hitting the ground running purely on its own merits and irrespective of any rivals.
Rescheduling game releases to circumvent direct competition is a fairly standard industry practice, as most recently underlined by Larian Studios' decision to launch the PC version ofBaldur’s Gate 3a month early with the intent of avoidingStarfield. 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 emergedXDefiantrelease date rumor fitting that trend.
XDefiantis coming soon to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
