After a successful open beta over the summer, folks have wondered when exactly XDefiant will be released. The answer is a little tricky and gives us a behind-the-scenes look we don’t often see as games prepare for release.
When is XDefiant Release Date?
In a lengthy statement, Executive Producer Mark Rubin didn’t offer a specific release date but did say the game could be out as early as mid-to-late September or as late as mid-October.
Why the release window? Rubin dived into the background of developers submitting their games to platform holders (Xbox, Sony, etc.) for certification. This certification process isn’t looking at the quality of the game. Instead, Xbox and Sony are making sure the game works within their system features. This is called compliance certification. Rubin gives some examples: making sure the platform’s friend list is updating, and achievements/trophies are being tracked.
About a month ago, the XDefiant team received a ‘Not Pass’ rating. Since then, the team has been working to resolve these certification issues and is prepping to submit the game again. That should happen in about a week, according to Rubin. If XDefiant passes this round of certification with no problems, the game could be released in late September. If it receives a conditional pass, the team will work on a Day 1 patch to fix any lingering issues and release the game in October.
This post is a surprising behind-the-scenes look at game development. We don’t typically hear about this because almost every game factors this process into its release date schedule. But with XDefiant, the devs have gone out of their way to include the community throughout the development process. From several rounds of playtests to incorporating feedback quickly to add requested features. The team behind XDefiant is all in with being transparent with their fans.
Rubin touched on how they have approached the development of XDefiant differently than most Ubisoft games.
“If we were following the standard rules for game releases, we would have set a date far enough in advance with enough buffer to have a confident release date. However, like a lot of things with this game, we have not chosen the typical route. Having millions of people play your game long before it’s ready is not normal. Not being afraid to show an unfinished game to millions of people with all its flaws is not normal. These were real tests and not just marketing events. So, when it comes to when we will release the real answer is “as soon as we can.” And we will continue to update you with more info when we have it.”
Again, this certification process is not looking at the quality of the game. It’s making sure the game interacts with the system-level features correctly. Rubin even said the team wasn’t expecting a pass rating on their first submission.
Right now, the team expects this next submission process to go much more smoothly and is aiming for release sometime over the next month. I’ll update this post once a firm release date has been announced.