Ubisoft is discontinuing its free-to-play shooter XChallengingUbisoft announced on Tuesday. The servers will remain active until June 3, 2025, but the game will no longer be available for download and player registration will be closed. Despite the sunset, XChallenging players will be able to access the third season’s content sometime in the “near future.” Nearly 300 people – 143 at the San Francisco office and 134 at Ubisoft’s Osaka and Sydney locations – will be laid off. The other half of the XChallenging production team will transition to other roles at Ubisoft, said head studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert.
“Despite an encouraging start, the team’s passionate work and a dedicated fan base, we have not been able to attract and retain enough players in the long term to compete at the level we aim for in the highly demanding free -to-play-game. FPS Market,” de Waubert wrote in an internal notice published on the Ubisoft website. “As a result, the game is too far away from achieving the results necessary to enable further significant investment, and we are announcing that we will end it.”
Of XChallenging Following the closure and hundreds of layoffs, Ubisoft said it will completely close its production studios in San Francisco and Osaka. Insider Gaming reported that a “skeleton crew” will be maintained keep XChallenging runs until complete closure.
XChallenging players who purchased the $69.99 Ultimate Founder’s Pack will receive according to XChallenging executive producer Mark Rubin in a letter to the community. Any purchases made within the last 30 days will also be refunded. However, according to a Frequently asked questions about Ubisoft“the Founder’s Pack and Founder’s Pack Elite are not eligible for a refund.” Rubin said players can expect refunds within eight weeks.
XChallenging was released on May 21 this year, following an announcement of the project in 2021. At launch, the game was seemingly a success, reportedly reaching 1 million players within hours of its official launch, according to Insider Gaming. No official player or revenue figures have been released, apart from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during an investor call in September that the game did not live up to expectations. In October, Rubin posted on X that number dropped due to “very little marketing,” a strategy designed to “get the game into a better place” before ramping up marketing to attract new and old players. He wrote that he was “crystal clear” in that there were no plans to close XChallenging after the fourth season, following an Insider Gaming report.
In its most recent earnings report in late October, it said Ubisoft reported that sales fell by almost 20%but the engagement metrics for the games were up. Ubisoft also reported that it has reduced its workforce by more than 2,000 people in the past 24 months – a number that is likely a combination of both layoffs and voluntary departures. Ubisoft employs 18,666 people as of September, and the company is reportedly “on track” to further reduce costs. (Staff retention was good, it was said, “close to historic levels.”) Star Wars Outlaws underperformed, Ubisoft said, but remained mum on the status of XChallenging – so quiet about the game that an analyst questioned Guillemont about the game’s declining success. “XDefiant is behind our expectations, but the games-as-a-service strategy remains at its core,” Guillemont said at the time. That line still appears to hold true: de Waubert said in Tuesday’s staff note that games-as-a-service remains “a pillar” of Ubisoft’s strategy, citing success with Rainbow Six, The Crew and For Honor.