This week, XDefiant’s Season One update arrived, bringing about new maps, weapons, and mechanics, along with a series of tweaks, quality-of-life improvements, and of course, new issues. It also introduced Ranked, which hasn’t landed well with the majority of the player base on account of it not feeling like a Ranked mode.
Shortly after the new update dropped, Ubisoft’s Mark Rubin took to social media to explain why XDefiant is experiencing so many issues, defending the game against those claiming it was released too early and ‘rushed out’.
‘Built Up From The Ground Floor’
XDefiant was released on May 21 to a relatively positive reception, with hundreds of thousands of players pouring onto the platform in the first hours of the game going online. It was a long-awaited arrival that came following months of delays and postponements, so eager players were just happy to finally receive it – and then the teething issues surfaced.
Speaking candidly on social media, executive producer, Mark Rubin explained why XDefiant’s launch hasn’t been smooth sailing:
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. 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.
From the horse’s mouth, if you can’t stomach XDefiant’s core issues, then feel free to go away. Plenty of problems have surfaced in the last month and a half, ranging from hit detection to net code and from menu bugs to animation-based issues, and while Ubisoft is working on them, it seems that each major patch just brings more problems to the table.
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