It’s getting a little intense for XDefiant, Ubisoft’s Call of Duty competitor shooter that went through positive beta stages last year. For months, Ubisoft’s developers have been pushing XDefiant back amid a slew of issues that have blocked the game from making it to the market. It is becoming a rather disappointing trend for those waiting for the game, and many have started to believe that it’ll never surface at all.

Recently, Mark Rubin, the executive producer working on XDefiant at Ubisoft, took to social media to offer an update. However, it wasn’t what people were hoping for, and by the end of his post, there were still no indications of when XDefiant might be released. Originally, it was supposed to drop by the end of Summer 2023, and then at some point in Q4 2023. Those windows have come and gone and prospective fans are still none the wiser about when XDefiant will come out.

It Had It, It Lost It

During the beta phases, more than a million players flooded the XDefiant platform, and positive reviews emerged. It had flaws, but that’s the point of beta testing. It proved to be a frenetic, fast-paced shooter with some innovative elements, and given the slower pacing of Modern Warfare 2 – which was the current Call of Duty game back then – many saw it as a strong contender for Activision’s shooter series.

It didn’t pan out, though – following pushbacks and blockers, Ubisoft had to unfortunately stress that XDefiant simply wasn’t ready. As time went on, more excuses rose to the surface, and most recently, Mark Rubin took to Twitter to explain the current state of play. He wrote about more issues that continue to block progress with XDefiant:

‘… the quick update on our progress is: 1) We have addressed the weird issues that were affected Netcode and we will continue to improve and test our netcode before and after launch, and 2) we’ve implemented the new Party System and are now just putting it through rigorous testing and bug fixing as we get ready for launch.’

It’s not the most positive news, but it’s something. Unfortunately, by the time XDefiant is released, it could be facing some of the toughest competition in recent years. For instance, there’s The Finals, which dropped in December and has turned out to be one of the best-received shooters to emerge in years. There’s also Call of Duty 2024, which is reported to have been in development for several years. If that wasn’t enough, we’re all eagerly awaiting the next instalment of Battlefield, which is said to be a ‘reimagining’ of the series.

And that’s all on top of the likes of Rainbow Six, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and every other shooter in between. Even if XDefiant is eventually released, how well will it really perform?