Yesterday, Ubisoft’s failed first-person shooter, XDefiant, was taken offline after being on the market for less than a year. It had a stellar launch but fizzled out faster than anyone could have predicted. As the player base dwindled, so too did the game’s prospects. In the end, Ubisoft decided to shut down the game and dismiss (or move on) every team member working on it.
In a recent post on social media, Mark Rubin, the prolific executive producer working on XDefiant and a 20-year veteran of the industry, revealed he’s quitting the games business for good.
‘You Won’t Be Hearing About Me’
In a lengthy post on social media, Mark Rubin mourned the loss of XDefiant, praised the team that put it together, and dropped a nuke by revealing his retirement from the games industry. His career has taken him through the doors of both Activision and Ubisoft, and he has been instrumental in bringing many games to life over the last two decades.
As for me, I’ve decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family so unfortunately you won’t be hearing about me making another game.
I do care passionately about the shooter space and hope that someone else can pick up the flag that I was trying to carry and make games again that care about the players, treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say. Thank you again to everyone who had so much passion for XDefiant.
He was apologetic and heartbroken at the loss of XDefiant, which was a solid shooter for all of about five minutes when it was released in May 2024:
I really want to praise and salute all of the devs that worked on XDefiant! The cards were heavily stacked against you, but you managed to produce a really fun and terrific game! And I like to call it out every time I talk about it, but I think our maps were some of the best maps ever made for an arcade shooter.
So, congrats to everyone for what they accomplished. I also think we made a decent impact in the space. We saw a lot of reactions from other games to what we were doing and that to me speaks volumes. I’m really sorry we couldn’t quite deliver and maintain this game for a longer time.
As recently as September 2024, Rubin was captured pledging that XDefiant was ‘not dying’, even as the game’s player count was being whittled down to almost nothing.
Are you sad to see the back of XDefiant, and by extension, Mark Rubin? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that COD 2026’s campaign could be set in Korea
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
