The upcoming FPS will reportedly only be available for PC users on the Ubisoft Store at launch.
As we recently reported Tom Clancy’s XDefiant was recently announced as a free to play FPS coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X. Ubisoft appears to have decided to make the PC version available solely through the Ubisoft Store.
XDefiant has been dubbed by Ubisoft as “fast-Paced Firefights meets Punk Rock moshpit”.
According to a Ubisoft rep: “As of now, the game will be on Ubisoft Connect once it’s fully out. There are discussions on other stores having the game post-launch, but nothing has been determined as of yet.”
So for the time being when the game is launched it will only be available to play for PC users from the Ubisoft Connect app (formerly known as Uplay).
The Ubisoft Connect app has been required for every Ubisoft game released recently in one way or another. Ubisoft Connect must be operating in the background to authorize titles like Rainbow Six Siege or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla when they are launched through Steam or Epic. So even if you acquire them on other platforms you still need to go through the Ubisoft app.
Because XDefiant will be free to play from the start, Ubisoft will most likely wish to retain all in-game purchases to itself. If the game is available on Epic or Steam, Ubisoft will very likely have to split the profits from in-game purchases.
This move is unusual for the publisher as they usually partner with Steam and Epic for their PC releases. From 2019 Titles like Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Extraction, and Riders Republic are available on the Epic Store, yet games further from release like Skull & Bones and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are not.
Could the lack of an Epic website for The Division Heartland as well be a sign of Ubisoft’s future games? Only time will tell if Ubisoft has now decided to move away from using Epic and Steam altogether.
You can sign up for XDefiant’s first playable test which will start on the 5th of August and you will have to play through the Ubisoft Connect App of course.
It will be interesting to see if this is the way forward for Ubisoft games or if they will return to using Steam and Epic to promote their games.