XDefiant, Ubisoft’s Call of Duty competitor, is launching on May 21 across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. XDefiant will start with a six-week preseason before switching over to a seasonal model similar to other live-service titles.
Announced on Ubisoft’s blog, the free-to-play arena shooter will launch on May 21 in preseason. The preseason will include five factions from various Ubisoft’s games. The first four are the Cleaners, Libertad, Echelon, and Phantoms, which will be available to everyone immediately. The fifth faction, Dedsec, will be available to unlock or purchase. The preseason also includes 14 maps, five game modes, and 24 weapons. While most game modes will be 6v6, the preseason will also include a 4v4 ranked practice playlist, which includes the same rules as the real ranked mode coming in Season 1.
The preseason is set to last six weeks, after which Season 1 will kick off. Ubisoft has provided a roadmap for the first four seasons of XDefiant, with each season lasting three months. Each new season will include a new faction, three new weapons, three new maps, and a 90-tier battle pass. Ubisoft hasn’t revealed the specifics for each season, but did provide codenames for the new factions in each season. Season 1 is codename Ruby, Season 2 codename Buzz, Season 3 codename Orchard, and Season 4 codename Horde. Every faction will be based on a group from one of Ubisoft’s various series.
The launch of XDefiant comes after a report of internal issues at Ubisoft, including allegations of a constant changing of features and a toxic workplace environment, which was reported to have caused multiple delays.
