Ubisoft admits that XDefiant has flopped, adding to the company’s problems

Ubisoft hasn’t been having a good time lately. Amid falling stock prices, underperforming games, significant delays and internal investigations, the embattled company has openly added another issue to its list of problems, which must now be approaching 99: XChallenging and his financial failure.

XChallenging is Ubisoft’s answer to the hero shooter, and like many post-Overwatch entries in the genre, lacks many unique selling points to attract those outside of Ubisoft’s dedicated fanbase. The Smash Bros. The approach of using factions from across Ubisoft’s Ubiverse likely contributed to this, as the average gamer will have no idea who the Highwaymen are supposed to be.

After much denial about it XChallengingits performance and its future, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot finally made clear in a recent investor call. In the question-and-answer portion of the conversation, Guillemot admitted as much XChallenging was “behind expectations,” even given the company’s admittedly “lower expectations” for the game from the start.

In other words, the game that Ubisoft expected to underperform actually exceeded expectations. The number of players has steadily declined since the game’s explosive launch XChallenging reportedly struggling to reach its target of 20,000 concurrent players across all its platforms. XChallenging even getting a season 3 is now a seriously controversial prospect, especially considering that BlackOps6 looms on the horizon like a vengeful leviathan from myth.

As mentioned, this is part of a larger trend at Ubisoft, which is now finally looking inward after the successive underperformance of XChallenging And Star Wars Outlaws. Next Assassin’s Creed has been postponed for further refinement, indicating that Ubisoft may actually learn something, however little and late it is. Ultimately, trying to please everyone will lead to pleasing no one; that’s just a shame XChallenging was little more than a stumbling block on the way to learning that lesson.