Ubisoft delays XDefiant preseason launch indefinitely due to issues found in last play test

Ubisoft has hit another roadblock in releasing its long-in-development free-to-play shooter XDefiant. It has just been announced that the presearch launch of the game has been delayed due to issues found during the game's latest public test session.

In a post on the official XDefiant X (formerly Twitter) account, Ubisoft expressed gratitude for everyone who played the game in its recent playtest. It added:

But it also surfaced some inconsistencies in the game experience that we need to address prior to launching our Preseason. So we’ve made the hard decision to delay the Preseason of XDefiant.

The team will continue working to address these issues and testing them to make sure we deliver on our goal of being a best-in-class arcade shooter. We will share more information about Preseason and testing as it comes.

XDefiant, which was first announced over two years ago under the name Tom Clancy's XDefiant, seemed to be on the right track to finally launch this year. After holding some closed beta tests for the game earlier this year, Ubisoft held a public test in June, and said the game would finally launch in the summer of 2023.

However, in September, Ubisoft announced that the game had failed its first certification tests for Microsoft's Xbox consoles and Sony's PS5 console. The team said it would try to send the game back for a second try to pass those tests, and predicted that XDefiant would finally launch no later than early to mid-October.

However, this latest delay in its launch would seem to indicate that the game has even deeper issues than what was previously made public. The fact that Ubisoft didn't even offer an estimated new release date time frame shows we may have to wait a much longer time for XDefiant to get its official launch date.