XDefiant | Ubisoft shooter delayed after failing console certification checks

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Online shooter XDefiant has been delayed after it failed console compliance tests. ā€œIf 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 Ubisoftā€™s 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 gameā€™s console version was tested internally by Sony and Xbox, and either one or both of those tests failed.

Not that Ubisoftā€™s lengthy update uses the word ā€˜failedā€™ ā€“ instead, the industry parlance appears to be ā€œNot Pass.ā€

Writing on Ubisoftā€™s website (via Kotaku), the gameā€™s executive producer and director Mark Rubin explains in considerable detail the series of events that led to XDefiantā€™s ā€˜Not Passā€™ situation. Rubin writes that, despite lengthy QA and compliance tests within Ubisoft itself, the team submitted a ā€˜Candidate Masterā€™ ā€“ ā€œWhat 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 ā€œgot our first results back by mid-August which was a Not Pass.ā€

ā€œWe realized then that we had more work related to compliance than we had anticipated,ā€ Rubin writes. ā€œIf it HAD passed, then we would have been able to ship at the end of Aug. But it didnā€™t and so we have spent the last 3-4 weeks fixing those issues and getting ready to do another submission.ā€

Although Rubin doesnā€™t describe what the game failed on, he does give us a rough idea. The consolesā€™ compliance testers werenā€™t looking at the kind of bugs that affect gameplay, but rather glitches that relate to a platformā€™s specific functions or features. ā€œ[For example], are trophies being properly tracked, is my friendā€™s 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.

ā€œWe 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. ā€œHope to see you all soon in game!ā€

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