TSA writes: Ubisoft's brand new crossover shooter takes aim at Call of Duty, but can XDefiant topple the Activision powerhouse?
Ubisoft cancelled the new Splinter Cell project and shifted it into XDefiant, due to live service ambitions.
“However, over time, Ubisoft lost interest in the Splinter Cell game and shifted it into something designed to compete with Call of Duty.”
Omfg.
Wonder how many times this kinda thing has happened. The games we lost.
How can these people get it so wrong. People really want a new Splinter Cell. Is that because they want a game that plays like another game….. no, it’s because they want a Splinter Cell game that plays like… you guessed it, a splinter cell game. I really cannot comprehend how the people in this industry have become so utterly useless.
I hate GaaS so much. Like the whole model, the purpose around why it exists, and how they literally can’t f*cking make a game without it just adds to the mess of it.
Live service games aren’t for me, though I don’t hate on anyone who decides to try to develop one of these games. However, I really wish some developers would realise not all the games need to be live service.
While I loved the original Splinter Cell trilogy, and Double Agent was good too (everything after that less so), 20 years later it’s bad that Ubisoft hasn’t been able to produce a remake or decent sequel, but I’m even more confused that no other developer has been able to make a decent knock off / spiritual sequel to a series which was so beloved. Surely anyone who tried to Kickstarter a spiritual sequel would blow past their stretch targets in only a few days.
Exactly. Just completely remake the first 3 Splinter Cell games with new (better) textures, better lighting, etc etc. Redo some of the cut scenes. Sell them as a trilogy. Make money. It's that simple.
I can’t work out why they haven’t even done the cheap option of just porting the PS3 era HD Trilogy Collection to PS4, would surely be a licence to print money. While I’d love a proper remaster, especially to add HDR as that would really pop visually with the shadow / light detail, I would settle for being able to play on a modern system (I have a PS3 but the system itself is so sluggish, and the Sixaxis controller so poor, I would always choose a zippy modern port with a PS5 controller).
I also hate when a small but super talented studio gambles their livelyhood on a GAAA totle like remedy with firebreak and mucurysteam with spacelords, or united front with triad wars
If it is a success then I imagine those small companies are now huge companies, but so rare it will happen. What I don’t get is artistically for the development team, once they launch a live service game and it beats the odds to become successful, those devs now are purely focused on how to get more from their players, maintain engagement and find a way to slot in brand partnerships. Have to imagine they would hope the success would mean they have more freedom in future projects, instead they become more creatively unfulfilled than ever
We recently spoke to one of the embedded QA testers who worked on XDefiant, and they detailed what the development process was like and how the team hated the Hot Shot game mode.
Who approved this article, this site has a fake cloudflare page that tells you to run a powershell command !!!
Mark Rubin, the lead designer of Ubisoft’s now-dead free-to-play shooter XDefiant, has left the games industry following his project’s death.
So much wrong with Xdefiant. At one point they started using the worst ideas for their game and FPS fans saw it in the previews.
No offense but if Xdefiant represents your best the industry is better off for it.
"We had other issues though as well that we tried to be transparent about. For one we had crippling tech debt using an engine that wasn’t designed for what we were doing...Another issue we had was having the right resources to make content for the game."
Ubi set them up for failure out of the gate. And he says they had stuff in the pipes that should have been at launch means Ubi rushed it out and the devs didn't.
Nope if it's lucky it'll fall into its own niche with a dedicated fanbase but it's ubi they can't really do anything right lately
Not at all. The controls are way too wonky. I don’t understand it, though. Why do all these These developers keep trying to make a call of duty killer, but they don’t copy the controls exactly!? Is it that hard? You wouldn’t think so. I think the reason is because they start out with good intentions, but then they let their ego get in the way and try to make something that sets them apart, some. Which, defeats the whole purpose and ultimately dooms the game.
If I had a dime for every "new COD Killer" that wasn't I could retire right now.
Time will kill COD, nothing else.
No. It's a hero shooter with poor gunplay mechanics.
Negative!