RUMOR: XDefiant is on Life Support

[@kit_horror]

I played it a lot when it first came out. The issue is you're playing a pvp only game with absolutely no game progression. The game holds no value once you get bored of what very little is there. If they had added more to do in the game(a lot more) with a sense of progression, the game could've gone far

[@Just_Jac0b]

There definitely should have been weapon skins to unlock faster than reaching literally level 100, 200, 300 etc. that’s crazy. Dont even need to be their best designs, put those behind the store cause it’s ftp. But not having anything at all to unlock besides abysmally long weapon leveling is a bizarre decision

[@Petrichords]

This 🔼

[@AliasProXxL]

Black ops 6 is literally the same😅

[@jay_344]

i found the opposite.. kinda. it’s very grindy with the unlocks and none of them make me feel anything. tbf CoD is the same nowadays what really got me were the maps. i was hoping they’d give us some bo2 style maps to match the blatant CoD inspiration

[@triq5047]

Battle pass was terrible, none of the characters or skins were cool. Grinding for attachments was a chore. Updates with new content needs to be more regular. Gameplay needs more interesting mechanics.

[@brodymundy4875]

i bet putting it on steam would help

[@Zaden_KT]

Honestly, the sole sellingpoint I heard from this game is "no skill-based matchmaking". I personally didn't get into it because I'm not into the specialist/hero-ability mechanic.

[@y0ungApeks]

lol the biggest selling point would be that its free w no plans on creating another xdefiant game each year for 70 bucks unlike cod

[@s0ne01]

Which is stupid. Because humans are stupid, ppl will always buy the new cod.​@@y0ungApeks

[@tenshimohagon7790]

It’s crazy bc you go back and look at a game like paladins and how it died off so quickly and it was in the same boat as Xdefiant when it was competing with overwatch

[@Torinna_]

This game suffers from the same problem as Helldivers 2. The game has barely any progression and once you see everything the game has very little reason to play

[@CypherOfSolace]

It's crazy how much games need progression treadmills these days to keep people interested

[@Kissislove17]

😔​@@CypherOfSolace

[@TaiJason37]

These games are not made for the Instagram/TikTok generation with their endorphine sickness. Every 2 seconds something needs to be unlocked, something explodes or some fancy numbers flashing on the screen Ppl saying things like "i need progression or i don‘t like the game" are having some serious problems

[@tenshimohagon7790]

@@CypherOfSolacethat’s not true at all. The games just boring and does nothing innovative and new.

[@CypherOfSolace]

@tenshimohagon7790 Technically, I agree, treadmills don't make the game fun or interesting. The game would still be boring even if they added an Innerstellar Camo grind.

[@EliteShot]

I appreciate your ability to articulate your thoughts clearly and unbiasedly.

[@ChronicTrauma43]

Why does this comment have the same tone as the bot comments 😂

[@JECSGAMING]

What’s good Elite 🔥

[@marcusfleming2052]

He always does

[@drumcorpslot]

Dam, I used to watch you shred on COD Ghosts. Sadly that was the last year of OG COD, and it’s been all downhill since

[@hamza-chaudhry]

​@@ChronicTrauma43Yeah but it's Elite

[@theward0ctor974]

This is either 1 of 2 things, Tom Henderson has lost credibility in insider info, or Mark Rubin is straight lying about the state of the game. Neither outcome is good news but if the first is true, then atleast the game is fine.

[@LD-sx9pr]

Tom Henderson is a known liar, I remember when he said Battlefield 2042 had way more features than it really had, especially when he told people it was from reliable sources

[@BlueIsLeet]

There's no reason for Tom to risk his career over a small game like XDefiant

[@TheOGFamSisher]

@@BlueIsLeet not too sure how reliable it is but I’ve heard he personally hates the game and cause of that he might be a little biased towards negative news about the game. Like I don’t think he was making stuff up and reported what info he was given but most likely case is a ex employee with some beef with Ubisoft probly fed him some greatly exaggerated info and cause he doesn’t like the game he didn’t look too much into it. That is if mark Rubin is telling the truth anyways

[@bobdarrick2628]

Hopefully XD is shut down lol or is a game with a very small playerbase.

[@Beta_Extraz24]

@StayBlemis there proof of this? Just asking

[@budapest1002]

Controversial hot take- (fully acknowledging xdefiant isn’t perfect) if xdefiant fails, the cod community(most not all) can never complain about cod being bad/not listening to the community ever again. 99% of y’all (myself included) complain every year about sbmm being one of the biggest issues in cod . Xdefiant fixes that, but people proceed to still play cod. That’s like complaining a friend of yours treats you poorly but continuing to be friends with them. There is a point where it is the perpetrator’s fault but eventually there is a point where you have to stand up and say no and cut that friend off. If you don’t, well….. 🤷‍♂️

[@MSCbay1]

But people didn’t leave xdefiant because of lack of sbmm… there’s a laundry list of problems that still have not been fixed that the community asked for. A large portion of the issues are ones that should’ve never been in the game to begin with. How can you defend netcode still not being fixed 4 months after release? Or even the fact that ranked was released in a horrible unplayable state? Or the fact that role limits still aren’t a thing in unranked and even in ranked there’s a easy work around to still have 4 phantoms with shields on a team

[@ultimatehobo1054]

Well said 🫡

[@jay_344]

this would make sense if xDefiant was a valuable replacement for CoD. I complained about CoD, tried xD, and decided to just pull the ps3 out and play the CoDs I missed so much. I still get to complain because I have yet to find an FPS on my PS5 that stands up to the FPS games on my ~20 year old console

[@Smokinjoewhite]

I would be playing xdefiant right now if I could find a local lobby. Over here (Aus) I can't.

[@budapest1002]

@@MSCbay1 I never said people are leaving XD bc of sbmm, I said that people (or at least a lot of people that I saw) on the internet and in person were saying things like “doesn’t matter if Cod fixed etc, etc etc if they still have strict sbmm I’m skipping this year…”. And as I stated in my original comment I’m aware xdefiant has things that it still needs to fix but there were several years where (and I’m not directly blaming y’all who are commenting right now) the things xdefiant had at launch but might be broken, Cod didn’t have for months, then happily accepted when they bring it in later in like 2 or 3 seasons. On top of all that being $60. So cod gets to make people pay $60 upfront and wait 2-3 seasons for content and still having bugs and a manipulative multiplayer system, and y’all (again not everyone) go back and play year after year, and XD (free btw) gets 1 season to fix their issues before people are supposedly wrapping it up and calling a quits?🤨

[@Flnetic]

This is the only game I care about at the moment. I'm completely off call of duty and don't see myself going back - only bought MWII since BO4. I really enjoy the sniping and the organic matchmaking. You can actually see yourself improving over time which is very rewarding.

[@zipnone1996]

This game is honestly not bad - the netcode needs work and maybe progression needs some tweaks. But I like the mix of game modes and when people play the obj, it’s exciting. The maps are nice and bomb mode looks promising

[@vcostor]

ubi has to hire out for their netcode. Ever since their first online games, it has been one of their biggest issues.

[@tenshimohagon7790]

Ubisoft will kill off the game to keep around their single player franchises.

[@SomeTimeReviews]

The bunny hopping in this game is wild... worst than Halo

[@Paintotheworld11]

Git gud kid

[@robertadams1558]

@@Paintotheworld11🤖

[@jasonadersonwedion9874]

@@Paintotheworld11🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

[@XIKaMuIX]

Honestly the movement is like the one reason that keeps me playing. In BO6 you cant even slide into a jump.

[@ĆrankyÓldMan2024]

The matchmaking is horrible for me playing solo. For every 10 games, 6-7 games would be joined in progress, of those, 2-3 of those would put me into a game that was 75% over. Only 2-3 games I’d be placed in a game that was just starting. On top of that, i played non ranked but it but it seemed everyone was playing like it was a championship tournament.

[@ericbrintonmusic]

Long time drif0r fan and xdefiant player as my main game from launch here: Drift0r raises many good points regarding the competitive landscape of FPS. We're all set in our ways, mostly enjoying games that are out there, and a small fraction of us breaking from our main game to join the community of an intended competitor to that game i.e. CS players going to R6, Overwatch players going to Valorant, etc. COD players going to xdefiant was always the business plan for XD, and I do think they stand a good chance at permanently taking a chunk away from COD. Not to be a one to one competitor, but to take a chunk from COD that is significant enough for its long term survival. The reason for this is no SBMM and a general tendency toward orienting the gameplay around the more classic cod experience, plus hero aspects. Like any F2P game with rare exceptions, and actually like games of any price point these days, numbers start out huge and fall off rapidly, This appears to happen with every COD for a good decade now. Initial release, big player counts the first few weeks, then a fall-off, and then a modest return of players there for the 'long haul'. With XD, there were (and still are) hitreg issues that plague many players' experiences, and that needs to be addressed immediately. For others, there is not enough content to keep them here. Having had a prestige system in place from the start would have been key, as that is something that so many classic cod players, myself included, miss terribly. S2 is going to bring a healthy amount of new content, as will S3. By the time we get to S3, I think XD will have a big enough value proposition, and have good enough cosmetics, to keep players engaged and MTXing to sustain XD for a reasonable time period of a few years. Overall, the Henderson article appears to not be entirely true, and there seems to be an overreactive response from the community, overstating how "dead" this game is. We as a gaming community also have a sick enjoyment of seeing games fail, especially when there's an aspect of the game we do not like. As an XD player, I despise the spider bot (which will be removed and replaced soon), but that doesnt stop me from playing and wishing for the game's downfall. All in all, COD desperately needs competition, and this is the closest game we've seen to actual competition for COD.

[@PbZeppelin]

My 2 cents is that micro transactions are wayyyy too expensive for what they are. Skins and cosmetic things should be a maximum of $5 AUD. Not $45 lmfao. It needs to be quick and cheap small micro transactions and then maybe I’ll consider buying them.

[@InnerAwes0me]

Yep the finals did this not too long ago, selling every individual shirt and pants and hat for like 1-10$. It feels way better dropping 40 CAD$ and getting to actually shop around and look at what I could mix and match, versus dropping 40$ on one bundle, getting one skin that other people can wear, that'll become less valuable once you buy another skin.

[@PbZeppelin]

@@InnerAwes0me agreed. Plus, COD’s black cell battlepass is literal insanity. I can’t believe anyone would actually pay for corny gold skins… should be a dollar a skin lol

[@Masterguy635]

If they added it to steam, I think a lot more people would be willing to try it out

[@michaelkilley3210]

I was one of those that tried it for a few weeks. It was a sweatfest which was fine, I guess, but some people don’t play games for 20 hours a day... And I had big problems with putting 20 freaking bullets into someone and then having them turn around a put me down with one or two bullets. And I have extremely fast fiber internet. It became just a huge frustration and not worth playing. I went back to, of all things, Modern Warfare 2 and I’m much happier playing that for one or two hours a week.

[@MiamiMarkYT]

Came out about a year too late for me personally. For the first time since 10 year old me played CoD4, I just don’t care about playing FPS games that much anymore. It feels solid, and I like about 80% of what’s there and what’s missing or wrong isn’t a huge deal breaker. I’m just in my post FPS MP phase now. That was my favorite genre for literally over half my life but I’ve finally had my fill. Wish it all the best because it deserves to succeed imo but it’s just no longer my thing. I’ll play a match or two every now and then but that’s it.

[@Krydolph]

Don't worry, most likely it will come back! I have been there, done that! One day you realize you miss it, find a game, and lose yourself completely in it :)

[@Samsonfs]

If this game came out like literally 10 years ago it would've been great

[@alexs_toy_barn]

I tried playing last weekend and it took me over 5 minutes to find a match, which was new, usually it took way less time. Clearly the issue is that the lack of any SBMM in the non ranked mode was a bad long-term idea, and that there's not a lot to grind for. Both can't easily be fixed without breaking what people like about the game, that it's got no SBMM or that it's free to play and try Or they can bring the game to steam, that'll probably double player numbers easily

[@drunkhusband6257]

No modern game without SBMM will ever succeed

[@BlueIsLeet]

I was one of those million players that tried it on day 1. never tried it again after that because it just wasn't fun to me. I think many others did the same

[@Krydolph]

Thats fair! People like different things! I wish more people could just be like you! "Wasn't for me, so I moved on" End of story! I stuck around because it really scratched an itch I have had for a while - I find it fun. There is no reason for all the hate and toxicity.

[@BlueIsLeet]

@@Krydolph Yeah I agree with that. Play what you have fun with. Makes no difference to me, nor should it

[@Sennodev]

Same. I just couldn’t get into it.

[@bobdarrick2628]

@@BlueIsLeetit would be funny though to be fair if XDefiant got shut down. It’s not that good of a game anyway. It’s a decent side game but it’s clearly not a CoD replacement.

[@DrBossSauce]

If xdefiant fails, the cod community deserves to get scammed my Activision.

[@werner9643]

Agree

[@TheAwesomejuan]

But if xDefiant fails to CoD, doesn’t that ultimately mean that CoD is the better product?

[@ethanbrophy1601]

If xdefiant fails it's ubisofts fault for not pulling players away from cod.

[@TheWorldMemeDatabase]

I don’t know if you botched the numbers, but you did botch the zeros. If it only cost $500,000 to make a Call of Duty, the profit margin would be INSANE.

[@yurrgee]

The game is copy and paste since Modern Warefare 2019 (excluding Cold War) so it wouldnt be that hard to believe 😂.

[@PhilBot4OOO]

Absolutely no chance 500k foots the bill. This would barely cover a couple of senior dev engineers annual salaries, he meant billion, with a B. Quarter to half a billion.

[@TheWorldMemeDatabase]

@@PhilBot4OOO That's why I said he botched the zeros.

[@PROJaiRU]

everything takes too long to unlock. gunplay is " ok" at beast, level design is cool but lack that" cod" feeling, and by that i mean TONS OF WEAPONS AND STUFF TO UNLOCK that keeps players coming back. cod is not perfect but they know how to hold a player base every year

[@Rodriguez5450]

Game is still tons of fun. No sbmm is the big thing that sets it apart from cod and how meaningless a new game is every year

[@smartperson325]

I stopped playing xdifiant mostly because of the wait times to find a match. Every other multiplayer game takes a minute or 2 but this game can take 5 to 15 at times which is ridiculous.

[@Aufalcon4.0]

I find it hard to believe that its not dying because i can spend 1 hour plus looking for a match usually just waiting for 1 more player or a few (ps5 with great connection)

[@JayzTwoCentzIG]

You must be stupid. Who waits for an hour when its clearly a bugged lobby

[@wolverine7147]

Your such a liar I can get into a match within seconds...on ps5...

[@TaiJason37]

One hour is bs I‘m in europe and i find a match in 20 secs even at 3 in the morning. You living at the north pole or what?!

[@wolverine7147]

@@TaiJason37 even more ridiculous the liar is sitting there for an hour waiting for a match 🙄

[@HishamPM]

I'm in Asia server, and it usually takes around 20 secs to find a match

[@Deshon_Holmes]

I think the shop is just too expensive. I don’t want to spend money on something that may not be around in 3 months.

[@hardline5889]

I prefer the game style of XDefiant, it seems more like the old play style of COD.

[@promeym2587]

Bullet sponges and spider bots. Sick of it very quickly after they "fixed" the bots. I left weeks ago and cleared it from my drive.

[@shashe23]

I don't know how it is for others, but I have been spending upwards of 10 minutes to find a match on weekends as of late, and usually I get placed into a different region than my own once a match is found. It appears there aren't enough players in my region.

[@bookofeli4640]

Seems to me like Tom Henderson done sold out to activision creating this rumors lmao COD ain't doing so hot

[@kmh6578]

Needs a second mode like extinction - zombies type

[@yurrgee]

If i was the Devs i would make a faction free mode so it’s easier to steal the avg COD player. Make the new weapons unlockable through challenges so majority players dont have to play weeks just to experience new content. And make some animated cosmetics with weapon inspects.

[@Extirpo]

Thx my man 🙌 Purly anecdotically: I play Xdefiant most evenings 2-3 hours while She Who Must Be Obeyed watches Netflix or whatever. I find a large majority of lobbys having mostly newish player, lvl 1-60 range. Lobby search is good, below 1 min. Granted my ping has risen from around 30 to now in the 40 area (since betas), but hands down: I think Tom Henderson has been spooked on this one. Oh and by the way: Im having a great time.

[@Drift0r]

I also have One Who Must Be Obeyed

[@Extirpo]

@@Drift0r 🤷‍♂️

[@MSCbay1]

What region are you playing in? From US west it’s painfully hard to find a match regardless of time of day. Usually 3-5 mins most of the time. And I’ve noticed from a plethora of others in the US in general have been having the same issues whether being online friends, small streamers, numerous comments and threads etc

[@Extirpo]

@@MSCbay1 Playing EU PS5, crossplay on. Ive only seen snippets of streams here and there, didnt notice waiting times put of the ordinary. Didnt time them either so.. Anyway that is my experience.

[@jugger17]

But content creators told me that XDefiant would bury CoD mainly because the game wouldn't have SBMM LMAO what's even more funny is that XDefiant is a bloody sweatfest even with matchmaking not taking skill into consideration...

[@alexs_toy_barn]

All the casuals have left by now, only players like us remain. That CoD whitepaper from a few months ago was right

[@Krydolph]

I just love how so many complain how XDefiant is a "sweat fest" First of all, let me just give you the standard toxic answer, because your comment is dumb enough to warrent it: Just get good, you are the one SBMM was made for - you suck, and it took XDefiant for you to realize it! Now that is out the way! I am one of the "sweats", meaning I go for the objectives, and try to win, because, hey, that is the point of the game (of any game), and that is what is fun to me. And I am lucky if I have ONE that is even close to my score on objectives, sometimes there is one with more kills, but then he is just farming and ignoring the OBJ. IT happens I get 2 teammates that try, but its rare. Same goes for the other team.... maybe 2-3 trying. So at the best of times, it is 50% "sweating", and most games, we are talinking someting like 2/12 - The WAST MAJORITY of players are not sweating, at all. But ofc, if you are running around like timmy no thumbs, with a 5 second reaction time, and another 5 seconds to aim in, it must feel it. But that doesn't make it true!

[@jugger17]

@@alexs_toy_barn Exactly, you can't have a casual experience if you don't have casuals playing the game. It's not just playing ranked but without a rank & some type of skill measurement and call it a day. Removing SBMM from pubs was never going to make the game feel like a CoD title from 2007-2012, and sadly that experience will never be back, as people nowadays have normalized being competitively toxic and taking games too seriously, even if isn't a ranked match.

[@jay_344]

people blame sbmm or a lack there of even tho no one’s complaining about that. it’s not overly sweaty imo. it’s just not a great game

[@Kayze330]

XDefiant isn't sweaty by any means tbh. If you think it's a sweat fest then it quite literally is a skill issue

[@metallicaspiker16]

I wanted this game to succeed so badly. I got bored and angry with CoD and Activision after the NickMercs debacle in MW2 2022, but after the lack of implementation of Hardcore, lack of diverse weapons, overly sweaty lobbies (I’m not the best FPS player, but I’m at least halfway decent) and a really bad hit detection system, I gave up. I don’t want to go back to CoD, but I miss playing FPS games with my friends and I don’t want to play Fortnite (unless it’s for the Guitar Hero thing - I also play music in a band and I got my start on guitar through Guitar Hero). I also don’t own a PC (don’t want one unless I’m building a sim racing rig). It’s a shame this game is going downhill.

[@gabenplznerf1093]

Damn. Guess it’s going to way of Ghost Recon Phantoms as opposed to R6. Although they still support For Honor so I’d be majorly pissed if they let XDefiant die.

[@samrasmussen33]

I find this very hard to believe. I've stopped playing many games including my favourite (titanfall 2) because the player base dies off quickly in Australia for games. When a game dies, it dies in Australia first. But I still find games in a matter of seconds here in Australia. IF there truly is a dying player base the matchmaking system must be really good for me to STILL be finding games in a matter of seconds. I still find the matchmaking to be too quick because I can't edit my classes in time between matches. I actually call bs on this whole xdefiant is on life support

[@ToastySofa]

Dropped the game after 2 hours because of horrible netcode. There was 0 noticeable improvement from the beta. Ubisoft is already a bloated company they need to just cut their losses on this one.

[@ITHATIDUDEI]

I’ll believe game companies when I see it

[@DethSaniel]

Im wierdly ok with buying a paid game, but as a general rule if its free to play i am not spending money on the in-game store...

[@matthewahn2717]

Like everyone else is saying, the lack of progression is really showing. After you've unlocked all (or at least the ones you want) of the attachments, the only other thing left to do is grind for camos...of which there are only 3. If there was more stuff that you could unlock via gameplay instead of paying money for I think it may retain more people's attention...at least, that's just me.

[@1Adrix1]

I tried out XDefiant right when it came out and enjoyed it for like a week or two, because the gunplay at its core is solid and it reminded me of oldschool CoD a little bit. Not everything about it, but some parts felt familiar. Ultimately, I lost interest, since I'm not a fan of all those hero-/ability shooters. Though the biggest issue is, no doubt, the game's technical state, which barely changed since pretty much the first tests ... and that was a long time ago. If everything worked properly, I could see this game have a healthy community - it's just not my cup of tea.

[@1234legend1234]

It feels like a cheap version of cod. The maps are so small that it's just a mosh pit where every game just feels the same. MW3 has a similar feel. When you compare it to older cods they always had a mix of different sized maps.

[@Violent_APC]

It is a cheap version of cod. Its free and has terrible skilled base match making

[@Br0do__NL]

I played Xdefiant for a good while. I’m a 3 Kd COD player and was about 2.5 kd in Xdefiant. The thing with this game is that once you have the aiming in check, the game gets really stale after a few games. There is no movement, the maps are quite big and the hero abilities are a bit generic. The no SBMM is great though. It’s actually the only reason I kept on playing. But I kept going back to COD. Also, the updates are more frequently in COD as well. The game could use a buff in the perceived pace of the game. Because the maps are quite big and lack of fun/fast movement it’s just getting stale running towards enemies. In fact, in this it’s the exact opposite of COD.

[@Phil_Official]

I feel there is something massively wrong with matchmaking. Sometimes it takes 10+ minutes to find a game on PS5, European servers. When I party up with a friend, most of the time we can´t find a lobby at all. When we each individually search for a match at the same time while not in a party however, we almost certainly end up in the same lobby. That is 100% an indicator of shockingly low player numbers, right?? And lastly, I do not believe lobbies fully disband after a match. The menu makes it look like it does, but when you finally get thrown into a "new" lobby, it´s mostly with the same players as before. So either matchmaking is seriously broken, or the menu doesn´t show us what´s actually going on.

[@Extirpo]

@@Phil_Official I have played practically every evening since early betas (PS5 EU). I have never (as in never) waited 10 min for a lobby. 90+ % is below 1 minute. Crossplay on?

[@Phil_Official]

No, I disabled crossplay. I assumed a free 2 play game should have enough players at any given time and on any given platform to provide plenty of lobbies but maybe I was wrong. Will try it with crossplay on from now.

[@numbah_6]

I personally haven’t touched xdefiant in a month or two. I enjoyed playing it, but just got distracted by other games and got a little bored with the lack of game modes that I actually liked. Really wanted some search and destroy / demolition modes

[@Extirpo]

@@numbah_6 SnD coming season 2 aka in less than a week.

[@SirDave1988]

Can't say I'm surprised tbh. I enjoyed what I played of it, but I agree with what others have said in that the game does feel stale quite quickly and the sweaty players are numerous and ultra sweaty, which does not constitute a fun time after a while. The lack of killstreaks (or any reward for playing well) is also missing, which doesn't help.

[@emkfrags]

Definitely needs more progression/camo challenges etc. Also if they had a private match mode day one it would have significantly helped the game have a competitive/esports scene but now with the game struggling in other departments it makes you wonder if it'll have much of a competitive scene at all.

[@Spiderboyjtg]

It makes sense that they are banking on season 3 since its the assassin creed faction. probably the most successful IP they can put into the game. If they can back it up with improvements to the game then it should work out.

[@ApolloPlanetary]

If you’re making a game that competes with the legacy titles, you need to come in hot and plan to stay that way. Too many new FTP games are released with lackluster content and performance issues, forcing the fix to be rushed. Then, those games do not last long enough to even realize these changes.

[@DarthVader964]

Gamers don't want hero shooters.

[@drunkhusband6257]

Tell that to Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch.....some of the most played games...

[@DarthVader964]

@@drunkhusband6257 those games have been out for almost 10 years+ at this point. There's a huge lack of traditional "cod" style multiplayers

[@BorrisBackyardigan]

Gimme black ops 1 remake

[@gorethrax8348]

Guess CoD is right for SBMM if that was such a strong driving force, the amount of data they have suggests players stay longer with it.

[@ivory9494]

It's great for engagement, that's why they keep even though the community hates it. It just keeps you going thinking "maybe next game will be good", very addictive by nature.

[@dickdanson]

The data cod published on sbmm showed that it had a small positive impact on retention in a gaming session amongst players in a game that came out 5 years after they implemented sbmm/disbanding lobbies. That says very little, because the people playing the game at that point are the ones who weren't driven away already by SBMM and probably dont care either way, or only started playing after the current matchmaking system was implemented and dont know any better. The % was also far too small to justify implementing a system that a large portion of the playerbase actively dislikes.

[@jugger17]

Well, the way CoD handles matchmaking works for them because for most of the time the active playerbase was mostly casual players, and even though since 2017/18 more and more casuals have either left the game or turned into comp players due to influence from pro players, content creators, streamers, etc the system still seems to work properly, even if in the last few years it feels like it became "more" strict, which is caused by a lack of active players, which makes above average/good players be demoted to bad/average players in order to make lobbies.

[@jay_344]

what’s good for business isn’t what’s necessarily right. slavery was good for business. on a way less harsh note, people simply want less sbmm and some sort of flow between game difficulty and Activision is giving the finger and cranking up the meat grinder since posting this i've got some replies and although I wasn't comparing sbmm to slavery, I now will: under a capitalist society, capital is the driving force behind the economy and how humans are treated (to make a long story short). due to this, capital gains are often put over people's health, safety, and rights aka freedom. slavery is "a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom." given that labor is bought and sold under the presupposition that freedom be tied to our financial situation, and labor be the systematic entry to that freedom, and a game's restrictions advancing that lack of freedom, even with financial compensation for the game developers, it can be said that sbmm is the whip that cracks down on the slave's back. you see, i am a slave to the game. it is my mistress (giggity) in a world in which my freedom has been stripped from me. i look to the heavens in search of a god to free me from my chains and that god has cast doubt upon my soul. it is that god, be it yours or not, has shunned me from the true heaven that is freedom on earth and replaced my limited time in this hell with ten years olds YY slide cancelling around corners and yelling slurs at me

[@jugger17]

@@jay_344 bruh comparing SBMM to slavery 💀💀💀💀

[@greyfox2344]

Imagine they only ever peaked at a million players, but sold the game for $20. You can still have all your battle passes and stuff, but you still made $20 MILLION. I feel like too many games are going free to play with super mediocre battle passes, then big corpo investors wonder "why game not make shitzillion dollars like fortnite" and then forget where players actually put value.

[@shinigamialexx]

Its sad to see this only because of the people that worked on it, but im also happy it happens, it shows everyone that a game cannot survive on copium, its whole selling point was " we have no sbmm" it is a mediocre game with absolutely nothing going for it besides the promise of fullfilling the cod playerbase's need to re-live the COD golden era multiplayer

[@Princesskenny004]

My group quit when they “nerfed” snipers and it felt like if you went up against a sniper you just lose

[@vcostor]

I am surprised the game lasted this long. Ubisoft doesn't understand gamers, they never have. They just made a game where you run fast and shoot. Without having something to make it worth while and fun, the game won't hold players. 60% of COD games will have a cheater in it but the game is still fun. xdefiant had messed up movement almost like cs:go and subpar gun play. You can't be below average on everything and still expect people to play it. If they pull of the new anti cheat they have been talking about with siege, and drop it in to xdefiant, I would give it another go.

[@helloface001]

With all the people saying the main reason for the failing game is progression, I would like to point something out: Ranked inherently is strongly progression-focused, but has been absolutely RUINED by hackers. You cannot progress because nearly every lobby is decided by one or multiple hackers. Also, the netcode failing is baffling. Not only does the gameplay feel like old COD, but so do the servers, with players constantly dying well after moving behind walls. I've found myself running away from gunfights because I know that if I stop shooting and move away, the netcode will carry over and they'll die after I stop shooting anyways. It's very sad to see a fantastic game be ruined by a complete lack of anticheat and an absolute failure in providing acceptable servers.

[@dr.pastrami5272]

Love your shirt and the statue behind you Drift. Glad to see you still show some love to the OGs who made cod the household name it is today. Hope you're doing better.

[@ShorelyToastGaming]

The support for the game thus far has been excellent, it would be sad to see this do the way of Concord.

[@MSCbay1]

The support? You mean them fixing obvious glaring issues that should’ve never been implemented in the first place? As ex cod devs it’s crazy how it took a season and a half to finally implement role limits when any and every other game in the market has exactly that. We’ve gotten one patch with weapon balances since release and a hot fix for gun xp. The newest map Rockefeller gets voted against and skipped repeatedly due to how poorly it’s designed. It just seems like they’ve been half assing everything from the start and people aren’t sticking around for it

[@sk84lyfe1211]

I play tons of single player games, but XDefiant is the only multiplayer game I’ve played regularly in years. I’ve played it since the day it launched and I’ve had a great time every time I play. I genuinely love this game and it is so much fun to play casually I really hope it doesn’t die. As long as its servers are up I’m going to keep playing it and if it does die I’ll be back to exclusively playing single player games.

[@YourGuySmallFry]

Drift0r was far from the far future one day in the future.

[@Cookiemaster98_98]

Not having the iconic characters from their factions dont help the fall off

[@MintCity]

The lack of content and progression killed it for me. I haven’t played for around 1-2 months and I played yesterday. Literally nothing changed over that time.

[@latro5002]

I don’t want XDefiant to die (CoD needs competition right now), but of course Ubisoft isn’t going to come out & straight up say the game’s dying. How would you expect to sell microtransactions & get people to spend time playing if you say, “oh the game might shut down in 6 months & everything you buy may become worthless”?

[@Unprotected1232]

Remember Hyper Scape? Ubisoft has struggled with launching new live service games for quite a while. Not to mention all the canceled projects.

[@maliekfuller7138]

I like XDefiant, but personally I don’t have a lot of game time anymore. When I do, it’s currently Baldur’s Gate 3 or Space Marines 2

[@nunyabusinessbro8527]

Mark Rubin and several devs already came out and said these rumors were false. What really hurts the game is videos with titles like this. People take Tom Henderson's word as law when it is well know he has a bias against this game. Him and Mark Rubin have thrown jabs at each other publicly several times over it.

[@Scroogey_boy]

Unisons confirmed the game is dying

[@hedgehog11953]

Who knew that having the entire selling point being 'it's like the old call of duty's' where everyone already played those games to death, wouldn't fly in the long term?

[@kenethernandez6246]

Nah the problem is that its not as good as old cods and the abilities are broken plus has worse net code than cods from over a decade ago.

[@RecycledCabbage]

When Driftor started the vid saying he was from the future, I was already inclined to believe he was, considering how teched out those glasses are.

[@JWyatt91]

I liked this game when it first came out. I'll probably go back to it in the future.

[@MARGWAA]

bought a skin for this game and a couple days later they gave that same skin out for free for everyone. thats one reason why ill never buy a skin again in this game. they did this to them selves.

[@colinmcmasters5819]

The Finals season 4 looks amazing, I'll be busy playing that

[@terribletimes902]

XDefiant shutting down was not even the original rumor wtf

[@devilscritic]

Half a billion I assume you mean. $500,000 is no money in mainstream gaming budgets.

[@sharkoh]

I loved the creative glasses you had on at the beginning 😊cool

[@andrerushing4956]

“ThIs Is ThE cOd KiLlEr BrO iTs So MuCh BeTtEr!!!” Yeah, where all yall at now? I knew this game was in shambles from the moment they called it a “cod killer”

[@bgannon100]

I play it every night, great game.

[@masteryoda3035]

Game is dead, less than 500 current viewers on twitch is a good indicator that people have stopped playing in huge numbers, sad to see

[@PricefieldPunk]

COD looking like its gonna be good this year is pretty much a death sentence to XDefiant. It was a fun game but nothing about it really wanted to make me dedicate a lot of time to it

[@jeremyrob780]

I feel like no one is mentioning that the game was and is free to play. Of course it’s gonna have a lot of day one players, it cost nothing to download and try. So millions tried it for free, didn’t like it and now it’s a fraction of that player base.

[@ItsJustKnivess]

XDefiant has nothing that sets itself apart purposefully ugly looking guns and bad character designs drive people away who knew?

[@sav8976]

better than sissy anime guns cod has

[@jugger17]

​@@sav8976it's not lmaoooo

[@PSNMirru]

@@sav8976sadly it’s not

[@ItsJustKnivess]

@@sav8976they have imitation versions in the shop currently with anime girls on them

[@kenet362]

The only thing it had setting it apart was no SBMM but that has now backfired as all the casuals have left leaving the game too sweaty.

[@shanedogg209]

pretty sure all they need to do is add cod type streaks. when i play XD i always find myself thinking "i should be unlocking the chopper anytime now"

[@User-be5yj]

X defiant needs search and destroy game mode.

[@TheBlackItalianGamer]

It's coming next week

[@User-be5yj]

@@TheBlackItalianGamer Really? I’m downloading that game right now.

[@zachronen]

@@User-be5yj yes it's coming in season 2 which comes out september 25th next week

[@User-be5yj]

@@zachronen thank you 🙏. Are you playing it?

[@zachronen]

@@User-be5yj yessir! I’m excited for season 2

[@ashwrightyy]

It has good potential but it should never have released in such an inconsistent and volatile state. Also, this game for people who don't live in NA or EU is almost impossible to find a game, and when you do the latency is bananas, because it has to expand it's geo filter to ridiculous extremes

[@mixaliss616]

KZbinrs wanted this -even now basically- to be the cod killer... Literally the game is far worse than COD in every way in technical aspects...

[@Bambam-]

XD died the second I spawned into a ranked game with NO search and destroy. Instead I'm playing domination (not a competitive mode) on 111 ping on an Asian server.

[@xxthefeardxx]

no specialists and better skins/cosmetics. a proper way to create a class instead of having to play one of the lackluster choices given wouldve been great. as for the cosmetics i remember playing and thinking it was fun for a week, but one of the things that caught my eye was how crappy the skins looked

[@brianhanson7686]

My issue is I unlocked everything and all the attachments then season 1 dropped and there was like.... no new content. All I had to look forward to was grinding like 80 levels on a battle pass to unlock one secondary weapon which while I did want I didn't want it enough to grind my face off playing the game apparently. It started becoming busy work with no real content left and then I stopped playing it. I do like the game, I just need more content than they apparently want to put into a new season which might be a problem for me long term.

[@CutiePi]

I'd keep playing if the net code was good. Rubber banding and hit reg make me leave and not look back pretty quick.

[@chriscreaturo8809]

I got back on x last week, been having a blast playing

[@primemachine146]

The issue with spending money on this game is that it has a stupid limited store, I can’t go on the store an buy whatever I want like battlefield or cod, I have to look at a store which has a limited amount of of content, this kind of system doesn’t work which is why cod ditched early on in mw19 and bf aswell. If you want me to spend money on the game fix your store

[@82guitarman]

I got tired of playing against the game as well as the players. When I feel the game is against me too, it’s impossible to have a good time.

[@aelinstue9431]

Regardless of the truth no company is going to come out and state their game is on its last chance so their statement may bring some hope in showing what they have planned but i wouldnt put anything into confirming it is or isnt on a sharp decline.

[@animalxINSTINCT89]

Played 2 matches and never picked it up again because it didn't have the right tone with all these different IPs cludged together into a hero shooter. I hated how much promotional BS was jammed into MW2/3. I want a shooter with regular military aesthetics without it being a hyper hardcore experience like squad or ArmA. I want Bf3/4 is what I'm getting at lol

[@ifreshplays]

Movment amazing, Gunplay Amazing, No SBMM Amazing. Gameplay wise game is Great but man there is zero reason to play it. i personally am burnt out on FPS Im just fed up with the game loop it self, I truly belive we will NEVER have FPS games like Bo2 & MW2 (The Real One) where you just boot it up and play it 16hrs day. The FPS Genre is so sacharated with legit zero devolpoemt to the core loop other than "Movement" and look where that put COD.

[@zeke5991]

I think the reason Xdefiant is starting to go downhill is because people want GOOD shooters with lots of progress to make, not mediocre F2P shooters.

[@Beyonder1987]

No kill cams and no score streak reward. This is a bad game

[@D-Man-223]

Hope it sticks around really enjoy playing it. Just need to get rid of annoying spiderbot and lower prices for cosmetics. Oh and fix mantling feels clunky.

[@MRFly-zt2gr]

ah yes, XDefiant, the COD killer

[@Violent_APC]

Helldivers failed so idk anymore

[@Th3DarkCanuck]

You're not filming from your bed.

[@TheAwesomejuan]

I recently built a PC and downloaded xDefiant. It was fun, but I ended up plugging in my PS5 just to play MW3 multiplayer. Though I’m trying to make the transition to PC only, CoD is still too good IMO to let go.