Ubisoft’s new shooter, XDefiant, loses the Tom Clancy in its name

XDefiant, Ubisoft’s upcoming 6v6 arena shooter, has lost the “Tom Clancy” originally attached to its name. Ubisoft announced the changes in an article about the upcoming playtests for the game.

XDefiant is a faction-based shooter described as “fast-paced firefights meets punk-rock moshpit” in its reveal video last summer. But with the inclusion of factions from Tom Clancy Ubisoft games like Splinter Cell, The Division, and Ghost Recon, “punk-rock moshpit” didn’t seem to mesh with the brand — a complaint some fans leveraged against the game when it was announced.

In its new blog, the studio revealed that the game will include non-Clancy game factions, which led to the removal of the author’s name from the title. While Ubisoft hasn’t revealed any new factions coming to the game or what series they’ll be based on, we could possibly see some Assassin’s Creed-inspired content in XDefiant This is due to the change. Maybe some Rabbids, if we’re lucky. A Ubisoft representative confirmed that Clancy-inspired factions would still exist to Axios.XDefiantIt is still the same name,

The loss of a single name may seem like a small change, and it’s not like Ubisoft hasn’t played fast and loose with the Clancy name in the past — some of the Division and Rainbow Six powers have more in common with magic than modern military hardware — but it should help set a better tone to match the game’s bombastic advertising.

Outside of the announced insider playtest (which invites went out for starting March 15), Ubisoft hasn’t revealed a timeline for XDefiant’s release. This game will soon be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Windows PC), Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Amazon Luna. Ubisoft already promises cross-play among all versions. XDefiant.