XDefiant was originally going to be a new Splinter Cell, according to former Ubisoft devs who went on to make Dispatch, but the publisher changed plans to chase those big Call of Duty bucks

XDefiant — Key art for XDefiant featuring character operatives from Ubisoft factions.

XDefiant may not have been as spectacular a flop as Concord, but it was another stark example of how ephemeral online gaming can be in today's industry. Ubisoft's multiplayer shooter released in 2024 to not-insignificant critical acclaim, with PC Gamer's Jake Tucker calling it "a breath of fresh air" in a sphere dominated by Call of Duty. But it shut down less than a year later as its initially strong player count slid away all too quickly.

I always thought it a shame that XDefiant never got a proper chance to thrive, but I'm especially sad now that I've learned what XDefiant's failure cost us. Before they ended up making a live-service multiplayer shooter (and more recently, the superhero phenomenon Dispatch), the founding members of AdHoc Studio were originally working on a new Splinter Cell game.