It is fair to say that Ubisoft's push into the live service market has been relatively unsuccessful as of late, as perhaps best evidenced by its free-to-play FPS title, XDefiant. While there was a lot of hype surrounding it pre-launch, and it performed extremely well in its first few weeks, interest slowly waned in the game, despite the plethora of updates and new content. What was supposed to be Ubisoft's answer to Call of Duty ended up being an unfortunately disappointing experience.

So, after releasing in May 2024 to mixed reviews, Ubisoft has officially announced it is shutting down XDefiant. This will likely not upset too many people beyond its core fan base and those who were intrigued about trying it but never got around to it. However, it is actually far more impactful than many may realize, as XDefiant's closure means a lot more than Ubisoft failing once again at entering the live service market. XDefiant shutting down is illustrative of a much wider problem in the gaming industry.

Ubisoft Is Officially Shutting Down XDefiant

It Has Been Out Less Than A Year

It likely won't come as a surprise to many that Ubisoft is shutting down XDefiant, especially considering that Ubisoft itself itted XDefiant flopped and hadn't met its expectations, which doesn't bode well. There have been rumors of XDefiant shutting down for months now, rumors that did little to curb people's preexisting skepticism that it would last much longer, but now that the news has finally sunk in, it feels like yet another live service game gone too soon.

It is worth noting that XDefiant will remain online for those who ed the game prior to December 3, 2024. However, it will go completely offline for all players from June 3, 2025. Ubisoft is issuing refunds to players who paid for the Ultimate Founders Pack, in-game bundles, and currency.

For all its flaws, there was a lot of fun to be had with Ubisoft's multiversal shooter, including its enticing gunplay and the crossover of its many popular franchises. XDefiant shutting down also means that its small yet dedicated community will no longer be able to hop on with their friends and enjoy a couple of rounds. Those who are against live service games or Ubisoft's controversial live service push will likely celebrate the closure of XDefiant, but it's hard not to feel at least a little somber now that yet another game will simply vanish into the ether.

This follows another fairly enjoyable effort from Ubisoft, the frenetic and frankly fairly unique battle royale, Hyper Scape. Many may not it as, much like XDefiant, it lasted a short while before being taken down forever. It also follows in the footsteps of dozens of other live service games that, without ceremony, were simply pulled offline. Bayblon's Fall, Marvel Avengers, Lawbreakers, Radical Heights, Knockout City, Ubisoft's The Crew, and, who could forget, the absolute Concord are just a handful of the live service games that have come and gone over the past few years.

XDefiant Won't Live On After The Servers Are Gone

It Will Be Taken Completely Offline

Of course, like many of the live service games before it, XDefiant was developed without an offline mode where players could fight against AI-controlled bots. Ubisoft has not confirmed whether it will add an offline mode to XDefiant. However, it seems extremely unlikely that it will. This was also the case with The Crew, which was shut down with no way of playing it, causing of its fanbase to sue Ubisoft, as reported by Polygon.

Ultimately, this means that when XDefiant does inevitably shut down in 2025, it will do so forever, without any way of playing it. An entire piece of media, created by hundreds of dedicated workers that was in production for at least three years - it was announced in 2021, but was likely in development long before that - will simply cease to exist. It's heartbreaking to lose a piece of gaming culture like that, to see so much hard work thrown away, especially when it could have been saved with just one mode.

This shift to being always online has caused this problem with live service titles and is even affecting Black Ops 6, among other high-profile games. It is making the work of game preservationists incredibly difficult, as there is no way of saving these games once their servers are shut down. This has happened with games that cost $70 at launch, meaning players have no idea if the money they're investing in them will be wasted in the long term.

All Online Games Need An Offline Mode

It Ensures No Live Service Games Are Lost

Of course, in this instance, Ubisoft has refunded players. However, games with microtransactions or an upfront cost that are shut down after several years often don't offer refunds. Players who have invested heavily in these games, including The Crew and Hyper Scape, lose out on everything they paid for, no matter how much they've spent. It is a growing sentiment that players don't own the games they buy, nor the digital products within them. Even Ubisoft's director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, said in an interview with gamesindustry.biz that "it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."

This is why live service games, in particular, but really any form of multiplayer experience, need an offline mode to ensure that, should they ever be shut down, players can still access them. There are a few examples where this has worked in the past, including some of the best first-person shooters ever made. For example, the somewhat mixed Evolve is still playable a decade later thanks to its offline . Typically, games that had single-player modes prior to the boom in online-only gaming are still playable to this day, even if they have been delisted from all storefronts.

Thankfully, Ubisoft is seemingly changing its ways. It revealed that The Crew 2 and The Crew: Motorfest are receiving offline modes in response to The Crew's shutdown. Additionally, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is meant to be getting an offline mode in the near future, something that its small but dedicated fan base will appreciate when it, too, is inevitably shut down. However, there are so many games in the live service space, including several developed by Ubisoft, that still do not have an offline mode. Should they be shut down tomorrow, players would lose access to them forever.

One can only hope that Ubisoft will add offline modes to its other online-only experiences and that other triple-A developers will follow suit. However, considering it requires a significant amount of development time to implement and there are complications regarding cheating, they're rarely added. Often, the fans of these games don't care either until it is too late, and the game is shut down. So, while XDefiant will be lost forever, with absolutely no way of playing it beyond 2025, it is important that all other multiplayer online games are spared that same fate and that art is preserved.

Source: XDefiant/X, Polygon, gamesindustry.biz, The Crew Motorfest/X