XDefiant Boss Reacts To Progression Issues, Outlines Changes, And Admits He Screwed Up

Ubisoft San Francisco is making some gameplay and progression changes after taking in feedback from players for XDefiant.

According to executive producer Mark Rubin, the team will double the speed at which players level up, which currently takes 3000 experience points. It will be changed to only require 1500 experience points. However, the levels that players need to unlock mastery skins will stay the same. This means that the grind for Gold status will be 14% faster than it was before, and unlocking weapon attachments will be even faster. The change is coming soon, but there is no date yet.

Rubin explained that XDefiant's main grind was its Weapon Mastery system. As it was the only grind the game had, the studio was afraid that players would max out the grind too fast and it would make unlocking skins feel less rewarding.

The issue is that the team made a change while the game was live where it impacted players who already put effort towards progression. Now, the team will revert back to what it was before and even making it better. Rubin apologized and said that the focus should have been on new grinds and challenges to keep the game fun, "This was a mistake on our part and we will own that."

XDefiant will receive its first season content on July 2 along with the Ranked playlist. A new faction is joining as well, which is actually GSK from Rainbow Six Siege.

In GameSpot's XDefiant review, we said, "XDefiant is unoriginal, and its disparate styles don't quite fit together, but solid gunplay and excellent map design elevate Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter."