XDefiant Release Delayed Indefinitely

XDefiant, the upcoming free to play FPS from Ubisoft, has been delayed indefinitely but that might not be as bad as it sounds.

XDefiant has had a couple of shaky beta periods so far, with many reports of performance issues, lag and bugs. Executive Producer Mark Rubin put out an update on where the game is at back in September. The update detailed the release process and explained why no release date was announced - apparently oweing to the game failing the submission process with 1st parties (xbox, sony...). Rubin stated they were hoping to resubmit and hopefully manage a release date somewhere between mid September and mid October.

Unfortunately, another short public test was held and more bad news for those of us eager to play XDefiant. The test meant more issues were raised by the players, some new, some old, particularly with regards to performance. With that, Ubisoft has delayed the title "indefinitely".

So, where is the positive in that? Delayed "indefinitely" sounds terrible, like it will never be released. Well, the issues raised in the playtests were important ones and it would be a shame for Ubisoft to forge ahead and ignore them. Actually taking time to address them instead of disregarding them to meet a deadline should be a good move. I'm hedging my bets that Ubisoft just want to stop giving specific periods for a release when the game is clearly needing important issues addressed. Missing public deadlines twice now is bad PR because they cause articles like this, so until they're certain they have a release candidate they are confident in, the hype machine can't generate.

Despite the issues, the game is good and, importantly, there is a market for it. The FPS market is saturated, sure, but there is a market for old-school Call of Duty which, frankly, current-day CoD is not fulfilling. This is specifically where XDefiant is targetting and wants to draw players from. Fingers crossed for more positive news soon.