XDefiant drops the Tom Clancy branding, will have factions from other games

On March 15, Ubisoft’s upcoming first-person arena shooter XDefiant announced the Insider Sessions program, a platform for playtesting game features with influencers and the community. Buried in that otherwise unremarkable announcement was the news that XDefiant will no longer be a Tom Clancy franchise game, and will have factions from other games.

Though you can no longer readily see the ratio, the original reveal trailer for XDefiant was heavily downvoted, with most of the criticism aimed at the Tom Clancy branding, which XDefiant seemed to have adopted strictly for marketing purposes. The game’s light-hearted visual style and complete lack of narrative focus seemed at odds with Tom Clancy’s legacy of gritty military fiction. With this change in direction, it seems that Ubisoft has accepted the criticism. Not only is Tom Clancy’s name off the title, but the smiley face emoji logo seems to also be gone, replaced with a more stylized version. You can still sort of see it as a face, but it’s angry now.

Based on how much of XDefiant’s current build is made up of assets based on The Division and Ghost Recon, we assume these games will keep their heavy presence as playable factions in XDefiant. Characters from other Ubisoft franchises should make an appearance when the game officially launches.