Ubisoft’s new free-to-play shooter XDefiant faces classic launch-day troubles

It’s going to take a lot to knock Call of Duty off the top spot, having presided over the first person shooter for what now seems like aeons. Sure, it’s had some stiff competition over the years, and still plays second fiddle to Counter-Strike in the hardcore PC realm, though few have come close to imitating its slick modernisation of the arcade shooter. Not until XDefiant, that is.

It's incredibly easy to be cynical when it comes to new live service titles. So many of them seem to appear and then disappear in the blink of an eye, but contrary to many a pre-launch prediction, Ubisoft's recently released XDefiant is actually posting decent player numbers.

Ubisoft has announced a brand-new monthly subscription service for its competitive first-person shooter Rainbow Six Siege.

XDefiant, on paper, is cynical to the point of parody.

Ubisoft’s XDefiant may suffer from hit registration issues, netcode problems and a lack of content, but its launch is seemingly a success. After reporting over three million unique players within two days of launching, Insider Gaming has revealed that the free-to-play shooter is now at 7.6 million players in its first week.

The free-to-play first-person shooter game XDefiant is reportedly doing big numbers already. According to Tom Henderson, the game has become the fastest ever made by Ubisoft to surpass one million unique players. In fact, it has already managed to break through the three million unique player milestone.

Ubisoft’s XDefiant launched recently, and despite some brief matchmaking issues, the response has seemingly been good. Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson reported that it saw one million unique players within 2.5 hours of its launch, making it the publisher’s fastest-ever title to reach the milestone. Furthermore, it crossed three million unique players in the first two days.

Online shooters like XDefiant have one key requirement: You need to be able to find matches in order to play. Most games launch with a few errors, but in this case, the majority of people hoping to play Ubisoft’s latest free-to-play title are getting hit with the “Unable to Find a Match” error when looking for a game. This isn’t actually an issue with too few people playing the game, especially since it has cross-platform support, so what’s really going on? Here’s how you can attempt to resolve the “Unable to Find a Match” error in XDefiant.

The new free-to-play FPS XDefiant is struggling with server stability on launch day, and Ubisoft says it's "making progress" on the issue.

Ubisoft’s free-to-play first-person shooter XDefiant is now available, but you probably wouldn’t have believed it based on the launch experience. Players report being unable to join matches as the lobby screen endlessly searches for others before giving up. Some have reported getting into one game or so, but issues remain.

Amazon Games is reinforcing its commitment to delivering world-class video games with the launch of its new internal development studio in Bucharest, Romania. Leading this exciting venture is veteran video game developer Cristian Pana, who boasts an impressive track record of more than 20 years at renowned publishers like Ubisoft.

Free-to-play shooterXDefiant is available later today, with Ubisoft providing various tips, outlining its monetization approach and showcasing the preseason battle pass. The patch notes are now available, detailing all of the changes, and there’s good news for Splinter Cell fans. Echelon is back as a faction, and the issue affecting their invisibility is fixed.