Another grab for the brass ring
Ubisoft has announced that its crossover first-person-shooter,XDefiant,will be holding its latest “Insider” playtest this week, giving its dedicated community the first opportunity to check out the crossplay functionality of the incoming military mash-up.
Announced in 2021,XDefiant— previously known asTom Clancy’s XDefiantbefore fans took umbrage to its quippy nature — sees operators from titles such asRainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and other UbiShooters battle it out in six-vs-six rat-a-tat-tat action. The title is Ubisoft’s latest effort to score a piece of the lucrative free-to-play pie, following on from unsuccessful ventures such asRoller Champions,Elite Squad,Hyper Scape,and canned endeavorsGhost Recon FrontlineandProject Q.
TheXDefiantplaytest will kick off tomorrow, February 16 and will run until Sunday, February 19. During that time, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X owners who havea “Ubisoft Insider” accountcan download theXDefiantclient on their platform of choice, before waging wars against players on all available platforms. Four modes, (Escort, Domination, Occupy, and Zone Control) will be available across 13 of the game’s maps. The tests are held under NDA, so don’t be taking any screenshots.
Please forgive a wanton bout of editorialization… I just don’t think this is happening. Ubisoft seems determined to conquer with the lucrative, free-to-play, “juggernaut title” market — To find its ownOverwatch,Apex Legends,League of Legends, orCall of Duty Warzone. And the string of failed releases, complete with the publisher’s own cancellation ofmultiplefree-to-play projects, stings of “Just keep throwing, something’sboundto stick eventually”.
Ubisofthasa successful multiplayer shooter,Rainbow Six Siege, which also happens to beverypopular and, incidentally,anexcellentvideo game. But theElite SquadsandFrontlinesandHyper Scapesof the world just aren’t cutting it. So many of these AAA “Next Big Thing” endeavors — from ALL publishers — seem so much noise, time, and effort, seemingly queueing up to enter a crowded market already conquered by a handful of stalwart releases.
MaybeXDefiantwill prove me wrong. Maybe it won’t close down within two years. We shall see.
