After what feels like an eternity, developer Ubisoft has locked in an XDefiant release window for the upcoming arena shooter. According to its latest earnings report, XDefiant will launch on PS5 and Xbox sometime between now and Sunday, March 31, 2024.
In a statement within the report, CEO Yves Guillemot says “the upcoming launch of XDefiant will take us a step further into the world of free-to-play, in line with our strategy of strengthening our position in live services and increasing the recurrence of our business.” As such, it’s clear that there are major expectations of executive producer Mark Rubin and his team at Ubi San Francisco – unsurprising considering the amount of hype that continues to build, despite multiple delays.
Touted to be one of the best FPS games of 2024, and a direct rival to Call of Duty, XDefiant is a 6v6 arena shooter that utilizes a games as a service (GaaS) model rather than the annual releases Activision Blizzard’s best-seller is known for. We’ve been following its development closely and were seriously impressed by its open betas last year, and now it finally seems like the XDefiant release date is in touching distance.
Though we only have a window for now, we’re glad that there’s at least something concrete in the calendar – you can check out the report here. Originally set for a Summer 2023 release, XDefiant was quietly delayed until the back end of last year. However, after failing to go gold and a shaky Public Test Session in September, Ubi announced that it would be taking it back to the dry cleaners to iron out some “inconsistencies”.
Since then, Rubin has kept us well informed via his personal Twitter, with the most recent update at the time of writing coming on January 27. Judging from Rubin’s comments, a Q4 release is a far more certain possibility than it once was. Hopefully, then, we won’t have to wait until later in the Spring to lock and load.
For more of the latest PS5 and Xbox news check out what to expect when the new Subnautica game finally arrives. Additionally, read up on the Crash Bandicoot and CoD dev that isn’t actually closing after all, despite layoffs.