XDefiant has looked from the outside like a generic, cookie-cutter shooter. But apparently Ubisoft want to change that perception, and so they're dropping the Tom Clancy brand.
XDefiant was somewhat laughed at when it was first revealed (and we were a little guilty of that ourselves). It just seemed a bit wild for Ubisoft to try and make a new IP in the arena shooter space, where interest has fallen off a cliff in recent years. But with the promising hires they made in XclusiveAce and Aches, it felt like they were really committed to making a respectable, competitive shooter. Well, along those same lines, now they're reaching out to the community, and asking players to sign up and partake in the all new Insider Sessions program. But in the same post where they made the Insider Sessions announcement, they also revealed a new creative direction for this game...
XDefiant Factions To Come From Outside Tom Clancy Universe
In their post about Insider Sessions, the XDefiant devs also announced that they would be creating (or taking) factions from outside the Tom Clancy universe. This is entirely unexpected, as all the early promotional material for this game boasted the Tom Clancy brand front and center. But as they explain:
These sessions will be an opportunity for you to get hands on in-progress features and provide feedback. Additionally, you'll be introduced to Factions from games outside of the Tom Clancy universe. With these changes, the game will now be known as XDefiant.
The reasoning here is probably that if they only use Tom Clancy characters, they won't be able to sell as wide a range of aesthetics. Love it or hate it, that's the way of things in 2022. All we can is cross our fingers and pray we don't get anything as ridiculous as the Snoop Dogg skin coming to Warzone...