While XDefiant seems to have had a very successful launch back in May, the same can’t be said for the free-to-play shooter’s Season 1. Not only were players bogged down with technical issues that required multiple patches to fix, but even some of the problems have yet to be resolved, especially with issues such as the netcode, which the devs have mentioned previously as something they are constantly working at.
Aside from the bugs, XDefiant seems to be lacking some important features as well, which are now standard in most multiplayer shooters such as being able to ping enemies/targets, and more. In case you’re wondering whether the devs at Ubisoft San Francisco were rushing to get the game out of the door before Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches in October, they didn’t. This is something Executive Producer confirmed in answering a gamer whether XDefiant was rushed for release. Rubin explained that their shooter is running on a game engine that was primarily used for an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online), and all the infrastructure for a first-person shooter had to be built from the ground up.
I feel like xdefiant was rushed out because of gta6 and black ops what are your thoughts @PixelsofMark @PlayXDefiant efiant
— Charlie Brooks (@unfoundsoul4) July 5, 2024
Rushed out? No. What we have is an engine that has only ever been an MMO. And so all of the infrastructure for an FPS has had to be built up from the ground floor. Even CoD started on ID tech which was a shooter engine. Apex started on a shooter engine. But for us we are working on developing all new tech in an engine that was designed for something else. That being said the engine is really great but it does require a lot of work and with that work comes a lot of bugs that other engines have already worked out. We’re not a shooter that’s been out for 20 years. If you like what we are trying to do stick around and you’ll see things improve and new features get added. But if the game isn’t for you that’s ok you can move on.
In answering a different player, Rubin states that the game engine XDefiant runs on is not outdate, though it wasn’t made to do first-person shooters in the first place.
It’s not that it’s outdated. It’s more just that it’s wasn’t made to do first person shooters so there is a lot to do and to improve.
— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 5, 2024
For reference, XDefiant’s gamne engine is Snowdrop, which is a proprietary game engine by Ubisoft, and has been the base of such games such as The Division 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and even the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws. Aside from The Division franchise, most of the games running on Snowdrop doesn’t really involve a lot of shooting, and certainly not in the same vein as XDefiant.
Should the devs have went with Unreal Engine 5 or a game engine more suited to first-person shooters? I honestly don’t think they’d even have a choice to begin with.
Let’s hope XDefiant’s upcoming patch next week alleviates some of the major bugs. These bugs and missing features weight heavily in our XDefiant review, though if other Ubisoft franchise that focus on multiplayer is anything to go by (such as Rainbow Six Siege, For Honor), the devs will be releasing updates and the like for a very long time.
More XDefiant Reading:
- XDefiant Season 1 Off to a Rocky Start, as New Patch Brings Frame Rate Drops, Abilities Not Working and More Issues
- XDefiant Hardware/IP Bans Against Cheaters Not Implemented Since They “Don’t Work,” Ranked Will Feature Faction Limit Eventually
- XDefiant Ranked Mode Zero RP Issue Being Investigated, Ranked Roadmap Planned Features Listed