Ubisoft CEO wants XDefiant to become “a serious esport,” says player count will increase with Season 1

Although the hype surrounding XDefiant has steadily dwindled in the past few weeks, its recent impact on the FPS genre cannot be understated. After all, it’s not every day a new shoot ’em up reaches a whopping 11 million player count in a span of a few weeks. But, like most games that get off to a blistering start, the main goal will always be sustained success, which Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot hopes for once Season 1 drops and beyond.

In a recent interview on Ubisoft’s website, Yves Guillemot revealed his team’s strategy to make XDefiant stand out from the crowd and his long-term vision for it. With GaaS games becoming commonplace in today’s landscape, Guillemot stated, “We need to continue to listen closely to our players and make well-informed decisions on where to focus our efforts, because if you succeed at GaaS, you can succeed for the long-term.”

“Let’s look at XDefiant. There’s a lot of work to do, but it was able to attract 11 million players in a short time,” Guillemot added. “And that number will increase with all the work done by the team to ensure Season One brings a lot more to the existing experience. It’s about making the right choices and sticking to them.” The Ubisoft CEO’s hopes for XDefiant are similarly grand: “Well, outside of it being continually updated with different experiences and optimized gameplay, I’d love to see it as a serious esport.”

Of course, with XDefiant’s Season 1 and its ranked mode yet to be released, a competitive scene for the Ubisoft shooter is still a ways off. However, it can’t be denied that the community-dubbed “CoD beater” is off to a fantastic start that should only continue with how Mark Rubin and the XDefiant team have constantly communicated with its players.