Online shooter XDefiant has been delayed after it failed console compliance tests. āIf it HAD passed, then we would have been able to ship at the end of Aug,ā Ubisoft writes.
A free-to-play first-person arena shooter loosely based on a whole bunch of Ubisoftās Tom Clancy-branded titles ā Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and the like ā XDefiant was originally scheduled for release in August. That release has now had to be pushed back after the game failed to pass first-party compliance tests. In other words, the gameās console version was tested internally by Sony and Xbox, and either one or both of those tests failed.
Not that Ubisoftās lengthy update uses the word āfailedā ā instead, the industry parlance appears to be āNot Pass.ā
Writing on Ubisoftās website (via Kotaku), the gameās executive producer and director Mark Rubin explains in considerable detail the series of events that led to XDefiantās āNot Passā situation. Rubin writes that, despite lengthy QA and compliance tests within Ubisoft itself, the team submitted a āCandidate Masterā ā āWhat we think is the final version of the gameā ā for testing by first-party console vendors.
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That Candidate Master was submitted at the end of July 2023, Rubin writes, and the team āgot our first results back by mid-August which was a Not Pass.ā
āWe realized then that we had more work related to compliance than we had anticipated,ā Rubin writes. āIf it HAD passed, then we would have been able to ship at the end of Aug. But it didnāt and so we have spent the last 3-4 weeks fixing those issues and getting ready to do another submission.ā
Although Rubin doesnāt describe what the game failed on, he does give us a rough idea. The consolesā compliance testers werenāt looking at the kind of bugs that affect gameplay, but rather glitches that relate to a platformās specific functions or features. ā[For example], are trophies being properly tracked, is my friendās list being properly updated with game status, etc,ā Rubin writes.
The fixes Ubisoft needs to make to XDefiant are therefore likely to be small ā though the resulting work means the game is unlikely to be ready until the end of September at the earliest, or perhaps even early to mid October.
āWe really can’t wait to go live and share our passion and love for XDefiant with everyone,ā Rubin writes in a chipper concluding paragraph. āHope to see you all soon in game!ā