XDefiant

XDefiant (formerly known as Tom Clancy's XDefiant) is a 2024 free-to-play first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft San Francisco and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on May 21, 2024. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Gameplay
XDefiant features a variety of factions and classes, each with their own unique abilities and weapons. It is set in the Ubisoft universe, map locations are based on multiple Ubisoft titles' in-game locations. Players engage in fast-paced, team-based multiplayer matches across a variety of maps and game modes.

The setting of the game revolves around factions called "Defiant", Phantoms (from Ghost Recon), Echelon (from Splinter Cell), Cleaners (from The Division), Libertad (from Far Cry) and DedSec (from Watch Dogs). Defiants are customizable with traits, abilities, devices, weapons and items. It has 6-versus-6 linear game modes (such as "Domination" and "Escort").

Marketing
XDefiant was announced by Ubisoft in July 2021. A closed Insider test of a pre-alpha version of XDefiant occurred in North America in 2021. A second Insider test was held in February 2023. A closed beta test began on 13 April and ended on 23 April. In March 2022, the game was rebranded as a part of the Ubisoft Originals brand, dropping the Tom Clancy's universe title, and is expected to feature characters from other Ubisoft franchises, including those from the Tom Clancy's universe, as previously mentioned.

On 17 April 2023, shortly after the launch of the game's closed beta, XDefiant became one of the top games to be streamed on the Twitch streaming platform, gaining around 50k viewers and passing the combined popularity of Warzone 2.0 and Modern Warfare II.

During the Ubisoft Forward presentation on 12 June 2023, Ubisoft announced an open session, which started on 20 June for closed beta test participants (21 June for all players) and ended on 23 June. A Public Test Session was announced for PC only starting on 28 September and ending on 29 September. Ubisoft planned the game to release in early-to-mid October. The Year 1 Roadmap includes four seasons with 12 new weapons, maps, balance, and 4 characters update. After the session "surfaced some inconsistencies in the game experience", director Mark Rubin announced that XDefiant release was delayed temporarily. Season 1 was announced along with a release date of July 2 in the Ubisoft Forward 2024 event. Content includes 3 maps, with one map coming out per month, 3 new weapons, a new faction (GSK (from Rainbow Six: Siege), Capture the Flag mode, ranked progression rewards, and more in-store items and bundles. They also revealed an XDebrief event which will be centered on the new season, which will occur a day before the season's release.

Release
XDefiant was released on May 21, 2024. On its launch day, it achieved 1 million unique players within two and a half hours. The milestone makes it Ubisoft's fastest game to reach 1 million unique players. 48 hours after launch, XDefiant had just over 3 million unique players and around 300,000 concurrent players across all platforms. Despite initial server issues causing many players to wait in the menu, these problems were resolved approximately eight to ten hours after launch. By June, it had accumulated 11 million players.

Reception
XDefiant received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.