Ubisoft’s XDefiant seems to be going through an important transition when it comes to dropping the ‘Tom Clancy’s’ branding in the title.
Since Ubisoft announced Tom Clancy’s XDefiant in mid-2021 and held a private demo session shortly after, very little information has been shared with the gaming community about this project. While the initial reaction of gamers to the competitive FPS genre was certainly mixed, the success of Tom Clancy’s The Division and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege demonstrated the potential of its online titles. Ubisoft. However, Ubisoft recently changed a lot about the project, including separating it from the Tom Clancy franchise.
In the latest update post released by Ubisoft and also the first post about the game since October 2021, the developer announced what they call XDefiant Insider Sessions. In fact, this is a series of closed test sessions that allow Ubisoft to gather player feedback on the state of the game. Perhaps more importantly, Ubisoft made it clear that in the future the “Tom Clancy’s” in XDefiant’s name will be dropped. The game will now only be known as XDefiant.
For gamers worried about how this means XDefiant will be completely detached from the Tom Clancy universe, that’s not entirely true, in fact. XDefiant itself may not be a Tom Clancy game anymore, but it will still have Tom Clancy content as this will be where the factions of the Tom Clancy games meet. While it’s unclear if previously announced content will be retained, XDefiant has previously revealed factions from Ubisoft games including Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and The Division.
To explain why it has made this decision, Ubisoft says that the plans for XDefiant now include the introduction of factions from other games that are not in the Tom Clancy universe. While Ubisoft doesn’t mention what these games or factions are, it’s easy to imagine what they’re talking about. Xdefian will likely feature other major Ubisoft franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Call of Juarez, or even Might and Magic and Rayman. It will allow XDefiant to be very weird and this can also help the title stand out.
Going back to the planned XDefiant Insider Sessions, Ubisoft fans interested in this project shouldn’t expect to hear a lot of new information even after the test begins. Ubisoft has confirmed that the XDefiant betas will remain shrouded in secrecy and subject to NDA rules for the foreseeable future as it continues to collect player feedback.
Although the reception of gamers for the XDefiant game is admittedly not as exciting as Ubisoft would like, the silence surrounding the project after its announcement is unusual and a bit strange. We can’t tell if XDefiant is still what it was originally announced as Ubisoft has removed the original promotional materials from its official website. However, if XDefiant is starting to be tested, it means that the rest of the game’s information will not be public for too long.
See also: Ubisoft Stockholm is developing a new unannounced action game project