XDefiant executive producer retires from gaming after shutdown

It was late last year that we knew Ubisoft's XDefiant wasn't long for this world. After one final update, the game chugged along to its death this June. Now that the game is officially gone for good, its executive producer and veteran game developer Mark Rubin has shared some thoughts.

In a lengthy post, Rubin began by thanking fans who played XDefiant. "I would say something remarkable happened with this game in that although we had very little marketing, we still had the fastest acquisition of players in the first few weeks for a Ubisoft title just from you guys all talking about and promoting the game," he wrote.

He then went onto explain why XDefiant had the deck stacked against it. It had little to no marketing, the in-house engine wouldn't allow the developers to make the game they wanted, and there was no long-term investment in the game.

However, Rubin remains proud of the work he did, but doesn't have any plans to try and make another go at stepping into the shooter genre. "I've decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family so unfortunately you won't be hearing about me making another game," he wrote. "I do care passionately about the shooter space and hope that someone else can pick up the flag that I was trying to carry and make games again that care about the players, treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say."

XDefiant is no longer available.