Ubisoft’s Mark Rubin has announced his departure from the company as its live service shooter XDefiant is officially sunsetted.
Rubin, who was executive producer on the title, announced he was leaving the developer on social media.
“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,” he wrote.
“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.”
Ubisoft announced it would be shutting XDefiant down last December.
Two production studios were closed as a result, and nearly 300 employees were affected by layoffs.
Ubisoft’s chief studios and portfolio officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert cited the game being “too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment” as the reason for XDefiant going offline.
In October 2024, Rubin dismissed reports that XDefiant was on its way to being sunsetted. He said he’d been in meetings about potential plans for the game’s second season, and that the team were focused on improving the experience and adding more content.
However, in his recent post on social media, he highlighted the issues that arose during development which led to XDefiant’s downfall.
These included “crippling tech engine debt using an engine that wasn’t designed for what we were doing” and not having “the engineering resources to ever correct that.”
He also said that “not having the right resources to make content for the game” also impeded development.
“I can say everyone’s (devs, HQ leadership, etc.) heart was in the right place, but we just didn’t have the gas to go the distance for a free-to-play game,” he explained. “I really want to praise and salute all the devs that worked on XDefiant.
“The cards were heavily stacked against you, but you managed to produce a really fun and terrific game.”
Rubin continued: “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 to me that speaks volumes. I’m really sorry we couldn’t quite deliver and maintain this game for a longer time.”
